ABSTRACT
The principle of oral contraception was clearly described in the
1920s by Ludwig Haberlandt in Austria, but oral contracep-
tives came to fruition only in the 1950s with the availability of
cheap sources of orally effective ovarian hormones. Even then,
it took the drive of Margaret Sanger and the generosity of
Paige McCormack of International Harvesters to persuade sci-
entists at the Worcester Foundation in Boston, Massachusetts,
to conduct the necessary research; and the obstetrician John
Rock, the reproductive physiologist Gregory Pincus, and the
scientist MC Chang to form a brilliant triumvirate which even-
tually provided women with a new and profoundly important
contraceptive choice. Yet, when the initial clinical trials were
conducted in Massachusetts, contraceptives were still illegal
under the old Comstock laws; for this reason, research was
transferred to Puerto Rico.
