5: Let's Talk About The Dark History Of Birth Control. Buckle In.
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Hi, friends. I hope you're having a wonderful day today. My name is Bailey Sarian, and this is the Dark History Podcast. If you're a curious cat like myself, then let's go on a journey together and learn something new, shall we? So the other day, it was like 4 p.m., my phone alarm goes off. The alarm to take my birth control, you know, it's like...

It's annoying, kind of scares you. And sometimes I'm just not at home, you know? Like for this instance, this day, I was at a bar and I was drinking a beer and I didn't have any water, but I like needed to take my birth control because the alarm was telling me so, you know? So I was sitting there like, well, hey, can you take birth control with beer?

I don't know. So I Googled it because I was curious and I didn't want to die or anything, right? Great. Anyways, I guess it's like not the best idea to have beer in birth control because it can lead to blood clots or something. But I did it anyways because I didn't have any water.

Moral of the story though, what I'm getting at is that I went down this rabbit hole of like where the hell did birth control come from? You know? And like you know how Google works. If you're listening, you know how it goes. You go from one thing to another and then the next thing you know, you're learning all about eugenics. Let me tell you, it was a ride, okay? I thought birth control had to do with women's rights, reclaiming our bodies, deciding when we want to have children.

Oh, nay nay, no. I guess I had really no idea where birth control came from. And as it turns out, it was a very scandalous, scandalous situation that took place in the 50s in Puerto Rico. Now it has an even darker history than you think.

First of all, I know what you're thinking at home, like what the hell is up with Puerto Rico? Like that in itself is confusing. Is it part of the United States? Is it not? It is, but it isn't. That's a whole nother mess. But one thing we know for sure, okay, is that Puerto Rico has a very dark past of its own. Oh, let me tell you, let me tell you. Involving mass sterilization of its women and has been used as a laboratory for the United States government.

What? Yeah. So you're thinking, okay, Bailey, like what does this have to do with freaking birth control? I know. Shut up. Shut up. You're jumping ahead. We're going to get there. Look, it gets even more messed up when you look into the people who created birth control and their motives seem to be a little suspicious.

to say the least, okay? Now, if you're curious to know the story of how the birth control pill came to be, I think it's fair to say we should know the background of birth control and how this whole journey started. Do-do-do-do-do.

So let's go back in time. Let me bust out my dark history book here and tell you all about birth control and its very complicated past. So, birth control. It has a really long and complicated past, okay? It's too much to cover in 45 minutes.

But, for example, did you know that there is proof that about 3,500 years ago in ancient Egypt, they used honey, acacia leaves, and lint to block sperm?

Yeah, well, moist, you know what I'm saying? And in the 1800s, the most popular way to stop someone from getting pregnant was something called voluntary motherhood, aka promoting abstinence, aka just not having sex, you know? Which it's proven, it does work. But many people found that to just be boring and unrealistic for them.

Now, this is important to mention because at this time, contraception was considered a moral issue and not necessarily like a public health one. So if you were having sex at this time out of wedlock, you were considered a sinner. Mm-hmm.

So yeah, it had nothing to do with public health and everything to do with Jesus. But in the 1910s, there were no healthcare standards for women. Many women, they were dying during childbirth or the child would die or even both of them would die. So just having a child was very dangerous and technically it still is. But because of this, women just wanted to have a choice whether they even wanted to have a kid or not, right? Is that asking too much? No. No.

So let me tell you, in 1914, there was this revolutionary movement happening called the Birth Control Movement. Now this was intended to spread the idea that women alone should be able to control whether they gave birth or not. Now within the movement, there was a belief that birth control could end human misery and create equality between men and women, rich and poor. Now this sounds like a great idea, right?

And for the most part, I was working. Affordable birth control has been available in the United States over many decades, state by state. It's been easier to access birth control. But in order to create new medication, you have to test it on people, right? So they did just that. And they had their eyes set on the women of Puerto Rico. But the real question is, were they pioneers or were they just taken advantage of?

And just when you think this story is dark, girl, it gets even darker. Okay, look. So buckle up. Get ready for this ride. Okay, so where did birth control come from? Well, let me tell you, okay? None of it would have happened if it wasn't for this woman named Margaret Singer.

Now you're probably wondering who the hell is Margaret Sanger? Great question. Margaret was the sixth of 11 children. Her mom sadly died at the young age of 49, and Margaret would go on to become a nurse, and that's when she realized how bad the healthcare system was, especially for women.

And Margaret knew she wanted to do something about it, okay? She used to be this badass who had her own newspaper called the Women Rebel. She even popularized the term birth control in it. The slogan of the newspaper, get this, no gods, no masters, which totally sounds like the title of a hardcore band's album.

Right? Come on. No gods, no mass. It's just very dramatic, okay? But in this context, they meant that women's choices shouldn't be controlled by anyone but themselves.

No guts, no mask. You know, it's just, I kind of... This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance. Progressive Insurance.

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Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. This is an ad by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better even when it's impossible to make time for them.

Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow. Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?

BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp.

Visit BetterHelp.com/DarkHistory today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com/DarkHistory. Later in her life, she would travel to Europe, where she saw that they were already big fans of birth control. And it wasn't such a controversial topic like it was in America. It seemed like everyone in Europe agreed on it, and it was widely practiced and even considered traditional in a sense. But in America?

Oh nay nay. Birth control was obscene. Oh my God, I would never. But in France, it was old news. Oui oui. You know, bitch? Oui oui. But around this time, World War I was happening and many of the soldiers were returning from war with STDs, like syphilis or gonorrhea.

Now because of this, it led to discussions within the military educating the soldiers on how to protect themselves from getting STDs in the first place. And because men or soldiers are getting sex education within the birth control movement, they thought, "Hey, like what about helping the women and not just the soldiers?"

And Margaret Sanger, she saw that opportunity and took advantage of it. Once again, only because the men were affected did birth control get shot into this high importance thing. If the STDs didn't happen, the movement probably would have been delayed for even longer. But it figures, you know? If a man is suffering, only then does change follow.

So through the combination of good timing and public goodwill, Margaret would go on to become the face

birth control, even up until the end of her life. I mean, even up until last year. If you mentioned Margaret Singer, people were like, oh my God, she's like Jesus. You know, like they would just lose their goddamn heads over her. People were thinking she is just a literal saint. But hold your horses, pony boy. Calm down. Calm your tits. Chill.

Okay? Because one of her most popular beliefs was that there was a link between overpopulation and poverty. And Margaret would spend many years trying to help poverty-stricken minority communities across the world to get better access to birth control. This was her goal. Get everybody birth control and we will eliminate poverty.

Now don't get me wrong, birth control was technically around at this time. Women had the option to get sterilized, but sterilization is a very permanent option and it's just not realistic for everybody. So Margaret, she wanted something easier, something that, you know, someone could just take at home, like a pill. Oh my God.

You know? But Margaret has the ideas, right? But she needs help. She needs help from someone who has a lot of money. Someone with a lot of power. And someone who can make all of her dreams come true. One of those people? Mr. Clarence Gamble. Doesn't that sound familiar? Well, have you heard of Procter & Gamble? P&G? DuPont, remember?

Well, Mr. Clarence Gamble was quite the millionaire who also had an obsession with believing overpopulation and poverty were linked together. Mr. Gamble started looking into birth control as a way to control populations that he considered had high birth rates. Oh, Margaret and Clarence...

They go way back. They had worked together once before. She knew he'd be a good partner because they both had the same beliefs. And Clarence Gamble, at this point, had already been building women's health clinics around the world as a way to keep the population low in poor communities. So Clarence Gamble's got the clinics, but Margaret needs someone with the brains.

the noggin, you know? So that's when she finds Gregory Pincus, a scientist obsessed with reproduction, and he was also quite concerned with overpopulation affecting the world. Margaret was quite impressed with his resume, and with the help of some funding, she was able to create the pill with Gregory Pincus.

Margaret and Pincus have the pill, Gamble has the clinics to administer the pill, to a much larger audience. Baby, we're in business. We are in business. They're like the little trio of Mean Girls almost. I don't know. Anyways. So again, just like any new drug in the market, it has to be tested. So where are they gonna test it is what they're thinking. Well, that's when they land on the idea of testing in Puerto Rico.

Now I know what you're thinking. Why Puerto Rico? I know. Why Puerto Rico? So here's why Puerto Rico was recommended. This is what they say. For starters, they had no laws against birth control. It was also one of the most densely populated areas in the world. And Gamble already funded a network of clinics there. Great. No laws, tons of test subjects, and convenient places to test them. Great.

During this time, in 1937, the Puerto Rico government was also making the connection that overpopulation was leading to poverty. More poor people means less rich people in their eyes. Doesn't that sound familiar though? Well it should if you've been listening, okay? Because that's the same belief Margaret, Pincus, and Gamble had. Super! Great! Awesome! You know?

Another reason they wanted to go to Puerto Rico, they believed that the women there were uneducated and they couldn't handle a simple birth control pill. Yeah, like it was going to be too complicated for them to take. Because according to them, not only are they poor, but they're dumb as hell. But Pincus had this great idea. It was like a light bulb moment to him. If Puerto Rican women can figure out how to take this pill, then that means anybody can do it.

proving that this would be the simplest and easiest choice for women.

At this time, the government in Puerto Rico was pushing sterilization on women. In other words, the women were getting their tubes tied and this was, again, to help with the overpopulation because, again, they didn't want more poor people in this area. The Puerto Rican government was really pushing propaganda that said, if you don't have a small family, you're going to be poor and you're going to make Puerto Rico worse. So they're like,

beating this into their heads from a young age. It's literally like in their textbooks, PSAs, it's all over the damn place. Kind of like how they did to us, you remember? Like if you don't go to college, you're not gonna succeed in life, you're not gonna get a real job, therefore you're not gonna live the American dream. It was like that to them. It was normal to them. Something you had to do in order to succeed in life, get

sterilized and they couldn't afford it. Over half of the population was considered poor. Sterilization was such a normal thing for the women that clinics were literally installed within the factories that the women worked at. So like you're on your lunch break, you have a little smoke, okay, you meet Dr. Bimbo, get your tubes tied, call the kids, just a normal Tuesday. The doctors technically

They didn't lie to women about sterilization, but treated it like it was really their only option. So when the pill came up, the women finally felt like they had another choice. And Pincus, remember the scientist, he knew it made them perfect for the project because rather than the permanent solution of sterilization, they had an easier option. They could just take a pill.

So around the year 1955, Pincus, the scientist, he made the pill and started testing it in small villages around Puerto Rico. Now, a lot of what happened at these trials was like one big secret. But what we do know was that some of the quote,

"subjects" were the women that had already given birth in one of Gamble's clinics. You see, they had their information on file so they called them up. Ring ring ring. Hello. And they're asking, "Hey, would you be interested in trying a new form of birth control? It's a simple pill. You could just take it. Doesn't that sound splendid?"

And they're like, "Oh my God, yeah, I wanna try this new thing. That sounds so easy. I'll be right there." In a documentary called "La Operacion," a woman named Donna Maria, she tells a story of clinic staff going door to door asking if the woman at home would be interested in a miracle pill that would stop you from getting pregnant.

and they purposely targeted the areas that were considered very poor and uneducated. They were kind of like the Mormons, you know, going door to door, knock, knock, who's there? And like, instead of offering salvation, they're offering a new form of sterilization. But let's be clear, they said yes to this because of the fear and propaganda that was pounded into their noggin, which conditioned them to agree.

And this was such an easier option than getting your tubes tied. All you're saying is I have to swallow a pill? Fuck yeah, sign me up, you know, like, hello. Now, this sounds too good to be true. How do you qualify for this new form of sterilization? Well, you had to be a woman under 40

Most were in their 20s, and they also had to have at least two children of their own. Reason being, they wanted to stop these women from having more children and cut them off at just two. They don't need to be bringing more poor children into this world. Nay, nay. Eh, how could you? The first trial went on for months, and 22% ended up dropping out.

Now, they were dropping out because 17% of them were experiencing some pretty serious side effects. Bloating, weight gain, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, bleeding, stomach aches, oh my god, yeah, really bad.

headaches. Now I'm sure some of you listening at home are like, "Hmm, that's what I experienced today." But the first pill had a huge amount of hormones, which made the effects way worse than you and I have probably ever experienced. Now Pincus, the scientist, and his other scientist friends, they brushed off the side effects saying that the Puerto Rican women were being too stupid to follow directions.

No, I'm not making this up. In official documents, it was said that the women were unreliable and the effects were just in their head.

Yeah, they did that. This was actually a really big deal because if the pill was gonna be sold in the United States, ignoring the side effects, not only were they putting women in Puerto Rico at risk, but now they were putting women everywhere at risk. On top of that, they weren't even telling the women that the pill was experimental in the first place. So many of the women didn't even know what they were getting themselves into.

If Pincus, the scientist, pulled this shit in mainland United States, his ass would be arrested for hiding this little truth from his subjects. But because this is Puerto Rico, I guess it's fair game.

Many residents of Puerto Rico were Catholic and talking about sex and sterilization, it wasn't just like a comfortable conversation you have with friends and family. Getting an abortion was considered a forever sin in their eyes, but taking birth control or getting sterilized was like a one-time offense in God's eyes. So a lot of them said nothing at all.

They weren't even sure what the hell to do. Plus on top of this, the press was calling these trials racist because they were using women of color as their guinea pigs for white medicine.

So the women of Puerto Rico are just being pulled in like every direction. The Catholic Church is telling them, you know, it's a sin. The press is saying it's racist. The government is saying you have to do this or you won't succeed. I mean, what the fuck? Like, what are they supposed to do? I don't know. They're being pulled in so many directions. The pill trials continued on. And then in 1960, the official birth control pill was released to the public.

groundbreaking moment. But back in Puerto Rico, they continued these trials up until 1964. Now it seems a little questionable why they would continue these trials if the pill was already released. So we looked a little deeper.

And friends, this is where it takes a very...

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Your cash back really adds up. Most mysterious part of these trials is that while they were happening, three women died. And nobody knows why. There was no autopsy done on these women. And to this day, there's no other information out there as like what happened to them. All we know about the trials comes from the testimony of women who took part in them.

One of the survivors we mentioned earlier, Donna Maria, mentioned in the documentary La Operation, said the nurse told her about a magic pill that would stop her from getting pregnant. All she had to do was sign up for the trial and she could get free health care on top of that. So she did.

And one day she took the pill on an empty stomach and said everything started spinning and she felt like she was gonna pass out or even die. Yeah, and like the worst thing of all, when Donna Maria asked if she knew she was a test subject, she went on to say she didn't know. So I'm pretty sure that's not cool.

There were other women who felt they were misled and also confused as to why they weren't told they were test subjects in the first place. And others wanted to know why no one was allowing them to make the decision for themselves. Meaning, you know, informed consent, telling them, "Hey, this is an experiment and like you're a test subject."

They just wish they had been told the truth so they had the opportunity to actually choose if they wanted to participate in this. This is where we figure out that the scientists doing the trials, they weren't necessarily lying to the women, they just weren't exactly telling them the truth, you know?

Now, to understand this, we have to go back a bit to talk about Mr. Clarence Gamble. You remember him. He was the one who opened up like the clinics, the trials took place in. Great. Well, why did he open these in the first place? And what were his intentions? Because I didn't know. Do you know? Well, now I know. Let me tell you. Okay, great. Mr. Gamble believed that there were less fit members of society.

and these less fit members needed to be wiped out to make room for people he deemed worthy of society. So Mr. Gamble created these clinics with the full focus of sterilizing as many women as possible. That way he could weed out those he considered less fit.

He even went as far as flying doctors from Puerto Rico to New York to learn more efficient ways to sterilize women. Then he would fly them back and they would perform their new techniques they just learned, all again with the goal of sterilizing as many women as possible to prevent overpopulation.

In the 1950s, while the trials are happening in Puerto Rico, Mr. Clarence Gamble over here, he was quite the busy man. He founded this nonprofit called the Pathfinder Fund, which I learned has nothing to do with a car. But it actually is still a thing today, and it's now called Pathfinder International. Still nothing to do with a car, though.

The company's goal was meant to focus on better reproductive health for lower income territories, which sounds amazing, right? Like, wow, who doesn't want that? But, and this is a big but, Pathfinder International released a statement this year, 2021, admitting that Gamble's motivation for this company was racially biased and actually unscientific.

Yeah. They also go on to say that Clarence Gamble, without a doubt, was a eugenicist. Well, you're probably wondering what the hell is a eugenicist. I know. Look, I'm gonna put myself on blast here and show you how dumb I am. Well, tell you how dumb I am. Because I personally thought it had to do with plants.

It has nothing to do with plants. It's actually much worse than plants. Eugenicists, they kind of play Dr. Frankenstein, trying to create the perfect society by breeding out people with less desirable traits like the poor, uneducated, and the mentally ill. And mind you, less desirable is debatable, but to the more extreme eugenicists, it was anything that wasn't blonde hair, blue eyes, and light skin.

If this all sounds familiar, this is similar to what the Nazis did in World War II. And I heard that that didn't go over so well. So when somebody like Gamble is bringing something we now know to be rooted in eugenics to exclusively places where people of color live, to put it bluntly, they're

Seems like they're trying to get rid of poor people of color. Remember when Clarence Gamble was deciding who was fit and not fit? Well, that's actually considered eugenics, babe, and it ain't a good thing.

Remember at the beginning when I mentioned Clarence Gamble and Margaret Singer? They both shared this interest in population control, overpopulation, blah blah blah. You get it. Well it turns out Mr. Gamble and Margaret, they had worked on a project once before. It was a program called the Negro Project. Was this also based off eugenics you ask? Question mark.

Were they just trying to get rid of a certain type of person, you think? Hmm? Are you seeing a pattern here or is it just me? This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep.

While you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance. It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts.

discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner, and more. So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year so you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.

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What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better, even when it's impossible to make time for them. Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow.

Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?

BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash darkhistory today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash darkhistory. We're back.

So it's funny, let me tell you why it's funny. Because today's episode started off with me just being a curious cat that I am, you know? And I wanted to know like where birth control came from. And I think beer was involved too. Anyway, you know, then we did some digging around and the next thing you know, we're just like lost in a sea of racism. It's just like a plot twist. I really didn't see it coming. Did you see it coming? Okay, well, shit, I'm sorry you're so smart. Oh my God. Anyways, with that being said,

Let's learn a little bit more about the Negro Project, which took place in 1939. So this was the project that Gamble and Margaret did together with the goal of helping black communities get affordable birth control, which again sounds like, hey, you know, like this isn't so bad, really. What's wrong with that?

But when you take a little moment to look at the project and the memo sent while it was being made, oh girl, it's bad. It's real bad. I'm going to read you a few highlights from the proposal. Again, I didn't write this. Margaret and Mr. Gamble wrote this, okay? Hmm. Me, me, me, me, me. Okay. They wrote that Southern Black people breed carelessly and disastrously.

These are not my words. It's in the proposal. But maybe, you know, she was just quoting one of the founders of the NAACP when she wrote that. So that leads us to the memos Gamble and Margaret sent each other during this time where Mr. Gamble wrote that black people are less intelligent and fit. There's that word again, fit. Gamble seems to really like that word. Mm-hmm.

Now this innocent disguise of wanting to help the black community get birth control completely fell off and revealed a truth. A truth that historian Linda Gordon even refers to as white supremacy, wrapped up in a pretty bow called the Negro Project. And to be fair, Margaret did lose control over the project and outside forces decided against setting up clinics run by local black doctors and instead gave funding to clinics run by white doctors.

But members of the black community supported this project and they wanted to be part of it because they believed in what it stood for. So if you're gonna come into this community, call this the Negro Project, you're gonna involve us in the project. And that's something a lot of historians say, that Margaret wanted to be more supportive

That might be true. But Margaret, Margaret, Margaret, other historians point out she didn't want to give them any leadership roles because she didn't think anybody would be able to do a better job than her at running the project

or maybe she just didn't want anyone hijacking her project. The truth is that there's a lot of proof that Margaret was into some sketchy shit. And there's also a lot of proof that maybe she wanted to do good things. If there's one thing we can all agree on, at least,

It's Mr. Clarence Gamble is a massive dick. And black activists were super suspish of these types of family planning programs anyway. I mean, it smelled of eugenics, especially given our country's history. And they believe that like this link meant the programs were designed to destroy their race. Even if they weren't designed to do that, the lack of representation just reaffirmed that belief. So they spoke out.

And because none of the leadership roles were given to members of the Black community, people lost interest in the Negro project, which just led to it falling apart and coming to an end. And Margaret was just crushed because the house she was trying to build just went up in flames. Aw, poor Marg.

But the black community, I mean their suspicions about Margaret's intentions weren't necessarily wrong because Margaret had shown time and time again what her true beliefs were. For example, she was a big fan of eugenics. Oh my god, there was this one time in 1921 when Margaret wrote an article that quote "the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over fertility of the mentally and physically defective

What does that even mean, you know? Well, according to Margaret and Gamble, some people were just a little dumb. And if you give dumb people birth control, then there won't be any more dumb people. Great! You know? I'm rolling my eyeballs. If you are not watching this over on YouTube, I am rolling my eyeballs.

Margaret was basically saying there needed to be a way to make sure that dumb people stop reading, okay? Problem solved. And yeah, she said that she didn't believe this about people of color, but to be honest, this next part's gonna make her saying that look really incorrect, I should say.

because the hits keep coming with Margaret. She spoke at a Women of the Ku Klux Klan rally in 1926. Yeah, I know, shocking. There's a Women of the Ku Klux Klan, get that? Ain't that some shit? It's the wives of the actual Klan members, but not actually the KKK. You know, it's like racism with less calories, diet racism, I guess, you know.

because women couldn't technically join in the KKK during the 1920s, so they had their own little version. I'm not sure if there were hoods involved, but same shit, different day, you know? So wait a minute, wait a minute. If Margaret's involved in all this bullshit, does that mean the whole Puerto Rico project maybe wasn't really there to help anybody?

What was this all about? Women's rights? This doesn't sound like women's rights. I don't hear any mention about women's rights, okay? I don't know about you guys, but all I heard was about how Margaret, Mr. Gamble, and even Mr. Pinky the scientist were all about population control and how racist their ideology was. So it's making sense now, ain't it? Today's episode- This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking.

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That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com/darkhistory. - Puerto Rico was making that connection between overpopulation and poverty. They put a bill in place that legalized sterilization in Puerto Rico. Not only was it inspired by the United States government,

But it was also inspired by Margaret Bunken Sanger. Yeah. And what comes with Margaret Sanger? Her beliefs about eugenics. And who loved eugenics? Clarence Gamble and Pincus, babe. Pincus, darling. We didn't forget about you. You're a part of this too. Mm-hmm.

So when you look at eugenics, the whole goal is to breed out the unfit, which makes this whole birth control trial look a lot darker. Doesn't it? I mean, come on. What the hell are they really doing? So, mm-mm.

By 1968, Puerto Rico was on record as having the most sterilizations of anywhere on Earth. And it gets worse because today, today Puerto Rico has the sixth lowest fertility rate on Earth. There was also a report that came out this year that said the entire population of Puerto Rico has dropped over 11%.

A huge part as to why this happened is said to be because of the low birth rates. It's not really clear if this is because of the sterilizations or because of the trials. No one seems to want to admit the truth around here ever, huh? I know. If they did, I wouldn't have this podcast. Get this, it's proven that their little plan didn't even work.

51% of their population is still experiencing poverty today. And even if the poverty level was less, was it even worth sterilizing a third of your women? I think this is further proving that this wasn't about birth control. It was maybe about something else. Maybe it was like something to do with racism. I don't know.

Many still to this day don't consider Margaret Sanger as overtly racist, but most historians agree 100% she was a eugenicist. And Margaret, darling, Margaret, pay attention, okay? Your actions are saying something else. Like, what are you doing at a KKK rally? Handing out treats? Come on, girl. We know what you're doing. Something questionable.

In 1998, a very famous, the most famous American feminist, Gloria Steinem, she wrote about Margaret in an essay. What did she say? It was like Margaret was just trying to fit in, even if that meant accepting these eugenics ideas because she knew it was a way to get what she wanted, and that being birth control for everyone. Who cares if a few people have to die in the name of eugenics?

This is for the greater good. So if Clarence Gamble is saying we need to breed out a few of the Puerto Ricans to get birth control, she was like, fuck yeah, let's do this fucking rage, man. And she did. You know, she did it. So many are truly confused by Margaret Sanger because these actions are maybe kind of sort of racist. I don't know. And she seemed to have all these bad intentions, right?

But there's this other side, the side that says she just wanted to get birth control to those who needed it most. What is the truth? And did the gang regret any of this? Margaret, Gamble, and Pincus? Wish we could ask them.

So where's the gang now? Pincus, remember the scientist? Yes, he was so proud of the pill. It was his pride and joy. And up until his dying day in 1967, he had no regrets. The evidence shows he thought he was doing a good thing.

Then you have Margaret Sanger, who up until her death denied, denied, denied that she was any kind of racist. She claimed she wanted to help. And let me just say this in my personal opinion, because I know, I know, Margaret did a lot of good shit, a lot of really good shit. I wouldn't have been able to Google whether it was okay to take my birth control with beer in the first place, because duh, she basically made the damn thing, right?

But, and again, this is my opinion, Margaret darling, Margaret, your actions speak louder than words. And it's just not lining up, girl. For many, many, many years, Margaret was an icon, the face of birth control. But once you start peeling back these layers, you start to uncover some sketchy-ass shit. At minimum, it's a splash, girl.

We even asked Linda Gordon, author of The Moral Property of Women, if she thought Margaret Singer had any regrets about any of this. And she basically said, not a fucking chance. Okay. I mean, not really. But when we asked her that, she asked us in response, why would Margaret feel any regret? By the end of her life, Margaret expected people to honor her because of her birth control work. But anyway, she died in 1966 from heart failure.

Bye Margaret. Thanks. And then Clarence. Mr. Gamble. You little devil, you. Clarence died of leukemia, thank god.

What? In my opinion, he was legit the devil. He wanted to get rid of people of color. Anyone who had a thought in their damn mind was a target for Mr. Gamble. I mean, yes, Margaret and Pincus were definitely like wrapped up in all this bullshit, but I think it's safe to say that Mr. Gamble over here, he was like the real puppet master. Remember when I mentioned Proctor and Gamble in the DuPont episode?

And how did that end up for us, okay? I'm seeing a theme here, Mr. Gamble. Like what the hell is your end goal here? Oh wait, he's dead, so I can't ask him. But I wonder what it was.

Well, the trial in Puerto Rico technically ended when the pill officially came out in 1960. That's all I say. But then there was an interview given in 2004 that said the trials in Puerto Rico were going on up until like 1964. Now this might not sound super revealing to you, but why are they still running these trials until 1964 if the pill was already out? That's the real question a lot of the unwilling participants still have.

The woman in that interview didn't really talk about what exactly happened in the trials, but she said the experience was so bad she can't even speak to her kids about it, who are grown adults now. And honestly, there are no answers because there's absolutely no records as to what the real intentions were with this whole situation. And the cherry on top of this whole story is that sterilizations are still being pushed to this very day. Mm-hmm.

We don't know what the true intentions of creating the pill was, but based off everything we learned together on this journey, it seemed like it wasn't so much about women's rights.

And I think it's pretty safe to say. On one hand, the birth control pill is around and widely available, but on the other hand, to this day, Puerto Rico is still struggling. The United States has always seemed to treat Puerto Rico as its guinea pigs long before this birth control story. This is like nothing new. Margaret, Gamble, and Pincus are just a small piece in this larger puzzle that we call dark history.

This goes to show that the government often uses the most vulnerable to experiment on to make life more comfortable for the upper class. The women of Puerto Rico are actually the most important part of the story. They're the ones who had to live through it. They're the ones still suffering to this day. And it was their lives that were taken advantage of to create this pill that we don't even think twice about. Look at me and my dumb ass drinking it with beer. Like, come on, Bailey, get your shit together, you disrespectful little bitch.

Bitch, honestly, I wish I could tell you more about the woman in Puerto Rico and their experience, but for the most part, we can't really find their records. You can easily find out more about Margaret, Pincus, and Gamble than you do the actual unwilling participants in this story or just the fricking files on this story. You can't find any of them. So why were these trials so mysterious? What were they hiding?

Why are there so few records? What's the big secret you guys? You know, why didn't they try this on men? Well, they have dicks. That's why they don't have a reproductive system like we do. But okay, still, I think these are great questions, but I think here the point has been about power.

Who has it and who is going to abuse it? 'Cause it doesn't stop with just Clarence, Margaret and Pincus and it never will. So this episode isn't necessarily about the birth control pill because as we know it today, it's pretty great for what it does and it's available to everybody, but it's important to know where it came from and what sacrifices had to be made to make it happen.

So don't go throwing your birth control out the window because you need it. Well, you don't need it, but you know what I'm saying? Like it's not, it's different now. It's different now. Anyways, two truths can exist at once. The birth control pill is great, but the way they created it

Super fucked up, okay? We didn't seem to learn much in the way of changing how we do things. Drug testing still goes on with some of the poorest communities of the world as participants. And many of the same reasons motivate people to participate, like access to healthcare that otherwise they couldn't get. With fewer alternatives, these communities are less likely to quit trials and are less likely to demand answers when compared to people in richer nations.

If you feel like this isn't much of a conclusion, that's because like there kind of isn't one. It's hard to feel closure when there's still a lack of research into so much of women's health. I wish I just had something happier to end this with. But hey, at least, you know, maybe you learned something with me today. Let's continue the conversation over on social using the hashtag dark history. Oh,

Also, you can join me over on YouTube where you can watch these episodes on Thursday, like after the podcast airs. And you can see how cute I look today because my hair is like lifted. I'm wearing pink. I look cute. My tits are out. Gorge. Also, you can catch Murder, Mystery, and Makeup, which drops every Monday on my YouTube. Anyways, I hope you have a really great rest of your day today. You make good choices. Talk to you next week. Goodbye. Bye.

Bye.

Research provided by Jed Bookout and Elizabeth Hyman. Writers, Jed Bookout, Michael Oberst, Joey Scaluzzo, and me, Bailey Sarian. And I'm your host, Princess of the Dark, Bailey Sarian. And a big thank you to today's historical consultant, Linda Gordon.