Today marks 60 years since the FDA approved the birth control pill. As we celebrate that anniversary, we must honor the Puerto Rican women who were misled, enrolled in clinical trials, and experimented on to test higher doses of the pill without informed consent.
They were preyed on by researchers who didn't value their lives. The researchers saw poor Puerto Rican women as a vehicle for population control and believed if they could follow the regimen given their limited formal education anyone could. It was racist.
pbs.org/wgbh/americane…
pbs.org/wgbh/americane…
"Medical advancement" has often come at the expense of communities of color; everything from predatory research methods and lack of informed consent to physical and emotional harm, and death. As we celebrate the Pill anniversary, we must honor these women.
remezcla.com/culture/birth-…
remezcla.com/culture/birth-…
