Contraceptive pill kit, Eli Lilly (Australia), about 1963

Complex problem

The arrival of the oral contraception pill in Australia in 1961 took place against a range of issues.

These included the global population explosion, ever-present fears of ‘racial decline’, longstanding moral strictures about women’s sexuality and fertility, the emergence of the second wave of the women’s liberation movement and concerns about potential physical side effects highlighted by the thalidomide tragedy.

The pill was part of, and contributed to, many social changes that improved the status of women in the second half of the 20th century.

The women’s movement sought better health care for women, including the right to control their fertility, better childcare, equal pay for equal work, and freedom from sexual violence.

From the 5th century onwards, the Roman Catholic Church has taken a strong stance against the use of contraception — an opposition that continues into the 21st century — but demographic studies of European birth rates reveal widespread limitation of human fertility over many centuries.

Ever since Richard Carlile published Every Woman’s Book, or, What is Love?: Containing most Important Instructions for the Prudent Regulation of the Principle of Love, and the Number of a Family in 1828, information about contraception has been published despite prosecutions for obscenity.

Marie Stopes and Margaret Sanger are the two most famous advocates of birth control of the early 20th century, and did much to bring the subject into open public debate.