care culture, I came across an unfamiliar name, a
person who had a major impact on the development of contraception -
Katharine Dexter McCormick (1875-1967). Without her remarkable blend of
intellectual gifts, personal tragedy, and immense wealth, the oral
contraceptive that is currently our nation's most common form of birth control might never have been developed.When my mother was in her child-bearing years, she & Dad had access to two types of "mechanical" contraception - she could use a diaphragm or he could use a condom. Neither was close to 100% effective, but they were more reliable than natural methods, like withdrawal or the rhythm method . Wonderfully sensual woman that she was, Mom preferred the diaphragm, which she felt was less detrimental to her pleasure during intercourse than using a condom would have on Dad's. According to Mom, all of their five children were carefully & lovingly planned. A lot of couples weren't so lucky.
Contraception 101
The first mention of birth control that I am aware of is in the Bible, Genesis 38. A truly wild story about sex & family, it includes a reference to a man "spilling his seed" (coitus interruptus), which so displeased God, the man was struck dead.
It's doubtful God was happy with Aristotle's theory that cedar oil, lead ointment or frankincense could be used as effective spermicides..
The great ancient writer, Pliny, advised his fellow Romans that the best form of birth control was to refrain from sex, making him the first known advocate of abstinence, which has always been - for obvious reasons - the only 100% effective form of birth control.
The mid-1800s were a hotbed of scientific advances. In 1848, scientists had the great AH HA! realization that men do NOT create life & inject it into women, to act merely as an incubator. They discovered that the male's sperm had to enter the female's egg. Let that sink in - up until 166 years ago, scientists had no idea how a baby was created. Gee - we have to wonder what we don't know now.
By the post-Civil War years, American couples had their choice of a variety of birth control methods, including condoms, spermicidal sponges & douching syringes, diaphragms & other cervical caps. In addition to being available through pharmacies, they could be obtained through mail order catalogues, dry good stores, even rubber vendors.
Enter Anthony Comstock.
Born & bred in rural Connecticut, he made New York City home following his Civil War service. He was shocked & appalled by the moral deprivation he encountered throughout the city. He led raids against merchants selling erotic literature; he made his name successfully seeking to suppress an account by Victoria Woodhull, a wpmen's rights activist, of an affair between preacher Henry Ward Beecher & one of his parishioners. Comstock was off & running. He used his growing stature to lobby for stronger obscenity laws, resulting in Congress passing 1873's Comstock Act
An anti-obscenity law, the Comstock Act basically criminalized birth control, decreeing contraceptives to be obscene material & banning their sale via the mails or interstate commerce. People convicted of violating the Comstock Act could get up to five years in prison - at hard labor - and a fine up to $2000.
Much as "stand your ground" laws swept through state legislatures in recent years, state after state passed "chastity" laws. Twenty-four states followed the federal government's leading, further criminalizing the sale of contraceptives.
Of all the states, Connecticut was the most restrictive, criminalizing the use of birth control by even married couples, who could be arrested & serve a one-year prison sentence. Although law enforcement agents typically looked the other way, such draconian anti-birth control laws remained on the books.
It was not until 1971 (!) that Congress removed language concerning contraception from the Comstock Act. After 1973's Roe v. Wade decision, criminalized contraception applied only to “unlawful” abortions, although laws criminalizing transportation of information about abortion remain on the books & were expanded to include information on the internet. The Comstock Act remains on the books to this day, providing invaluable support for the growing movement to curtail contraceptives.
FYI - the United States is still the only western nation to criminalize birth control.
Katharine Dexter McCormick
Enter a lady - in every sense of the word. Katharine Dexter was on August 27, 1875, into a prominent Chicago family that could trace its roots back to the the Mayflower. She had the remarkable advantage of a father who always encouraged his brilliant daughter to pursue an education. He died too early - of a heart attack,when she was only 14 - to see his daughter's academic success, the second woman to graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the first to receive a bachelor's degree in science (biology) from MIT.
But for all her intellect & accomplishment, Katharine was will a woman of her
times. Plans to attend medical school & become a doctor were
shelved. Instead, in the same year she graduated, Katharine married
Stanley McCormick, an heir to the immense International Harvester
Corporation. She was now a member of one of the richest families in America, poised to be a devoted wife & mother. The Princeton grad (Class of 1895) seemed an excellent match for Katharine. Tragically, any dreams she may have harbored of marriage & family were dashed within a few years, when Stanley was diagnosed with severe schizophrenia. Originally admitted into McClean Hospital, his condition deteriorated so badly, he was moved to the family's estate in Montecito, California (where an older sister had lived before being put into a sanitarium) & declared legally incompetent. His guardianship was split between his wife & his family.
By 1909, Katharine found herself "rich as Croesus," with even greater social prominence than before her marriage, and determined never to have children with Stanley (husbands still had rights), since it was believed that schizophrenia was hereditary. She had her intellectual prowess, scientific training, social prominence, incredible wealth - all she needed was something to do with her time & energies.
In lieu of raising a family, Katharine raised her eyes & committed her fortune to social change, She fought to win women the vote & believed that a woman's right to control her own body was as essential as suffrage. There were a lot of brilliant women in the fight for women's rights, but none with her powerhouse combination of a degree in biology, social position, incredible wealth, and an intense personal tragedy propelling her into the fray over women's reproductive rights. Had he lived to the 1950s. Katharine Dexter McCormick would have been Anthony Comstock's worst nightmare.
It was natural that during her suffragette days, Katharine would cross paths with Margaret Sanger. In Margaret Sanger, she found a cause worthy of her gifts & purpose. Although she supported women's reproductive rights, it wasn't feasible for Katharine to openly do much, certainly not to provide substantial funding for highly controversial birth control research. Locked in a bitter battle with her husband's siblings over control of Stanley's wealth, the ever prudent Katharine focused her philanthropy on family-approved areas such as schizophrenia research. It was one thing to use trips abroad to help smuggle diaphragms into the country for Sanger's clinics; open support was out of the question.
Then, everything changed in 1947. Stanley died & Katharine received full control of his massive wealth. In her early 70s, sharp & energized as ever, Katharine was long past her child-bearing years, but the issue of dependable birth control was as important to her as ever. Now, she could put her fortune to use. The obstacles were mind boggling - 30 states had laws on the books restricting the sale and use of contraceptives - but to the first woman to get a science degree from MIT, whose steely resolve had been forged in the fire of personal heartbreak & legal battles, the political will of state legislators was piddly compared to her iron will to make a difference, to help fund development of an oral contraceptive within her lifetime.
When Sanger told her about her vision of a pill as easy to take as an aspirin, Katharine was hooked. She placed great faith in biochemistry. Sanger knew how to wage social battles, but her friend was savvy to the ways of science. Instead of spreading out donations & funding between various universities, at home & abroad, she wanted to find promising work & invest in that specific poject.
As in so many other aspects of her life, Katharine did it her way. In 1953, Sanger took her to meet a Massachusetts' scientist that the great activist thought could find a solution. At the end of their first meeting, Katharine wrote out the first of many check to fund the work of fellow biologist, Gregory Pincus.
After decades of having to keep her support of women's reproductive rights under wraps, Katharine was eager - and qualified! - to be in the thick of the research. She moved east to actively monitor the development of the birth control pill, following every stage of the project.
Spurred by her deep desire to have the pill a reality before she died, Katharine constantly urged the researchers to fast-track drug trials. It seemed that everything in her life had prepared her for this work. She was an unbottled force to be reckoned with. Small wonder that Dr. Pincus' wife described Katharine, now in her 80s, as a warrior, who "carried herself like a ramrod. Little old woman she was not. She was a grenadier."
Katharine was 85 when The Pill came on the market, in 1960. While the scientists & doctors who developed it were lauded or loathed for thei accomplishment, Katherine Dexter McCormick - whose devoted patronage made it possible - was basically unrecognized & soon totally forgotten.
But Katharine didn't do it for fame. She did it so women could have greater control over when they started & expanded their families, so they could have an intimate relationship with husbands without the fear of passing on something as dreaded & dire as schizophrenia.
Katharine Dexter McCormick died on December 28, 1967, at the age of 92. There was no obituary in the New York Times or other major papers. I doubt she would have cared. She lived long enough to see the efforts of Connecticut (still the most aggressive of all states to criminalize medical contraception) defeated in Griswold v. Connecticut.
Born two years after the Comstock Act first criminalized contraceptive devices, Katharine lived long enough to see her dream of a safe, reliable, LEGAL medical contraceptive become reality.
Personally, I don't support medical contraceptives. With all their failings, I would limit contraceptives to ones that block fertilization. I can see the unexpected fall out that being able to more effectively plan or totally avoid pregnancies has caused in our society, how it even has an impact on our elder care culture.
All that being said, I stand in awe of Katharine Dexter McCormick. When circumstances finally released her from passive support of women's reproductive rights, Katharine backed up her passions with funding. While the federal government, medical institutions & pharmaceutical companies steered clear of anything having to do with contraceptive research, she poured dollars into developing The Pill. In the absence of governmental backing & a dearth of big pharm development dollars, a single benefactor provided almost every single dollar necessary to develop the oral contraceptive. Our gal, Katharine Dexter McCormick.
A big part of my admiration for this woman I never heard of until this morning is that our lives seem to parallel. No, I am not socially prominent, immensely wealthy, intellectually gifted & academically accomplished. But just as - in her early 70s - everything that came before contributed to what she could accomplish when the right moment came. Her family situation kept her basically on the sidelines of women's reproductive issues & mine hobbled my own ability to strike out on my own. But it was those very family situations that stoked the fires of our social change passions - hers for reproductive freedom, mine for a revitalized & empowering elder care culture.
Katharine Dexter McCormick - whether you applaud her invaluable contribution to securing women greater reproductive freedoms or loathe her for it, you have to admit she was the epitome of an elder making use of every moment & resource in her life, who seemed prepared from her earliest years for a once-unimaginable opportunity. Well done - well done, indeed.
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