The Pill
In 1917, Katharine met Margaret Sanger, at the trial for Von K. Allison, a man arrested for distributing birth control information in Boston. Katharine and Margaret both agreed that birth control and family planning were integral parts of women’s rights. Margaret had opened one of the first birth control clinics in the US in 1916, leading diretcly to her founding of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The clinic operated openly, defying the 1873 Comstock Act, which made the distribution of contraceptive information and devices illegal. It remained open for nine days before being raided by the NYPD Vice Squad, who arrested the women workers and closed the clinic.
The two women kept in touch, writing to each other regularly about birth control and women’s rights. By 1923, Margaret had opened a new clinic, and Katharine had devised a plan to import much needed contraception to the United States. At the time, diaphragms and other contraceptive devices were banned in the US, but were legal in Europe. Katharine, whose mother owned a château in Switzerland, traveled to Europe regularly. Posing as a local scientist in various European countries, Katharine gathered hundreds of diaphragms from European manufacturers, and became an unlikely smuggler. She filled her trunks with the latest French fashions, had the diaphragms sewn into secret pockets in the clothes and set sail back to the US, contraceptive contraband in tow, ready for delivery to Margaret’s clinic.
Stanley died in 1947, and Katharine became the sole owner of a considerable fortune. One that she was determined to use to better the lives of women. In 1952 Katharine and Margaret embarked on a partnership that would revolutionize women’s control over their own fertility. Margaret introduced Katharine to Dr. Gregory Pincus, who was studying the regulation of hormone levels in rabbits to control their fertility at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology.
Throughout the 50’s and 60’s, Katharine became laser focused on the research and development of the world’s first birth control pill, personally contributing millions of dollars and overseeing the management of the Worcester laboratory that did the ground-breaking research.
In her 80’s at the time, she lived to see the FDA approve the first birth control pill in 1960, a defining moment for women’s reproductive freedom.
