Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod. Let's show about the past, rediscovered.

On May 9th, 1960, the birth control pill was first approved by the FDA as a contraceptive method in the United

States. Within four years, more than four million women had used what was then marketed under the name

Inovind. Now, more than a half century later, the pill is the most common birth control

method used by women. But before any of that, the people behind birth control pills

needed to prove they were effective, and to do that, they needed to test them on humans.

Where they chose to conduct those tests marks one of the most controversial and rarely discussed chapters in the history of a drug that has come to symbolize women's liberation.

In the mid-1950s, the first large-scale human trial of the pill was launched in Puerto Rico, in a public housing project. There are multiple theories why Puerto Rico was chosen as a testing ground, despite its heavy Catholic population.

It was an easy flight from the U.S. mainland.

There were no laws against birth control, and the locations overcrowding in poverty

made it especially attractive to a biologist named Gregory Pinkus, who was concerned about

global population control.

Lillow was known about the drug's effects when the human trials began.

It had been tested on rats and rabbits and a small sampling of women.

But in Puerto Rico, it was given to as many as 1,500 women over several years.

The trial raised controversy at the time and continues to inspire debate.

Three women in the trials died, but no optopsies were conducted, and it remains unclear if their deaths were linked to the drug.

At the time, it was given in much higher doses than it is today.

The choice of testing on poor people of color raised comparisons to early instances of experimentation

forced upon unknowing African Americans, and a study that involved deliberately infecting

hundreds of Guatemalans with sexually transmitted diseases.

After all, the Puerto Rican women were being given a drug whose side

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