(light jiggle music) - 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 4:00PM, my phone alarm goes off, the alarm to take my birth control, you know, it's like, beep beep beep. It's annoying, kinda scares you. And sometimes I'm just not at home. You know, like, for instance, this day, I was at a bar and I was drinking a beer, and I didn't have any water. But like I needed to
take my birth control, 'cause my alarm was telling 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 wanna die or anything, right? Great, anyways, I guess it's not like the best idea to have
beer and 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 where the hell did
birth control come from? 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 next thing you know you're learning 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 and deciding when we want 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, what the hell is up with Puerto Rico? Like that in it's self is confusing, Is it part of the United
states, is it not, it is, but it isn't, that's
a whole another mess, but one thing we know for sure is that Puerto Rico has a very
dark past of its own. Oh, lemme tell you, lemme 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 it have to do with freaking birth control? I know, shut up, shut up, you're jumping ahead,
we're gonna get there. Look, it gets even more messed up when you look into the people who created the birth control, and their motives seem to be a little suspish, 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 journey all started. So let me go back in time, let me burst out my
dark history book here, and tell you all about birth control and it's very complicated past. Mmhn, 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 there is proof that about 3500 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 not having sex, which it's proven it does work. But many people found
that to be just 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. So yeah, it had nothing
to do with public health, and everything to do with Jesus. But in the 1910s, there were no health care standards for women, many women they were
dying during child birth, or the child would die, or even both would die. So, just having a child
was very dangerous, and technically is 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. 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 it 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 a 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, so, look, buckle up, get ready for this ride. Okay, so, where did
birth control come from? Well, let me tell you. None of it would've happened if it wasn't for this woman named Margaret Sanger. Now, you're probably wondering who the hell is Margaret Sanger? Great question. Margaret was the 6th of 11 children. Her mom sadly died at the young age of 49. Margaret would go on to become a nurse, and that's when she realized how bad the health care system
was, especially for women. And Margaret knew she wanted to do something about it. She used to be this badass, who had her own newspaper called The Woman 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 bands album, right? Come on, no Gods, no Master. Its just very dramatic. But in this context they meant that women's choices
shouldn't be controlled by anyone but themselves. No Gods, no Master, you know, it's just, I kinda love it actually. This episode is sponsored by Apostrophe. A prescription skincare company for people that are ready to take their acne, or just your skincare
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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 no, nay, nay, birth control was obscene. Oh, my God, I would never, but in France, it was old news, oui oui, you know, oui oui. But around this time, World
War one was happening, and many of the soldiers
were returning from war with STDs, like syphilis
or gonorrhea, pleasant. 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? You know. And Margaret Sanger she saw an 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 hadn't happened, 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, oui, oui, you know. So through the combination of good timing and public goodwill, Margaret would go on to become the face of birth control. Even up until the end of her life, I mean, even up until last year, if you mentioned Margaret Sanger, 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. 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 wants something easier, something that, you know, someone could just take at home, like a pill, oh my God. But Margaret has the ideas, right, but she needs help. She needs help from someone
who has a lot money, someone with a lot of power, and someone who can make all of her dreams come true. One of those people,
well, Mr. Clarence Gamble. Oh, doesn't that sound familiar? Well, have you heard
of Proctor and 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, oh, 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 an 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 believe that the
women there were uneducated and they couldn't handle a simple birth control pill. Yeah, it was like it was gonna be too complicated for them to take. Because according to them, not only are they poor, but they're dumb as hell, mmh. 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 gonna be poor and you're gonna make Puerto Rico worse. So they're like beating this into their heads from a young age. It's literally like in their textbooks, PSA's, it's all over the damn place. Kinda like how they did to us, 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, 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 "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, yeah, 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? They're like, oh my God, yeah, like, I wanna try this new thing, that sounds so easy, I'll be right there. In a documentary called LA Operacion, a woman named Dona 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 kinda 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 yes, 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 twenties, 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. Don't need to bring more poor children to this world, nay, nay. 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
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. Uh, 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 the 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 are 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 continue these trials up until 1964. Now, it seems long 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 dark turn. Today's episode is
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I get the results back, like what Saints all about, my dog. He's so cute. I love him so much. Now, let's get back to the episode. The 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 to 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, Dona Maria, mentioned in the documentary, LA Operacion, 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 Dona 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. 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 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 non-profit
called the Pathfinder Fund, which I learned has
nothing to do with the car, but it actually is still a thing today, and it's now called
Pathfinder International, still nothing to do with the 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, 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. 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, okay? Eugenicists they kinda
played 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 eugenicist, it was anything that wasn't blonde hair, blue eyes and light skinned. If this all sounds familiar,
and 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, there 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 Sanger, 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
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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 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, sure, 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, Bailey, 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 gonna read you a few highlights from the proposal. Again, I didn't write this, Margaret and Mr. Gamble wrote this, okay? (bailey clears throat) 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 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. 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 historian 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 reaffirm 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, it just went up in flames. Oh, poor Marg. But the black community,
I mean, there's 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 "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? Well, according to Margaret and Gamble, some people were just a little dumb, and if you give dumb people birth control, well then there won't
be any more dumb people. Great, you know, God,
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 breeding. 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 woman of the
Ku Klux Klan rally in 1926. Yeah, I know, shocking. There was a woman of the
Ku Klux Klan, get that. And that's some shit. It's the wives of the actual clan 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 they 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. I don't know about you guys, but all I heard was about how Margaret, Mr. Gamble, and even Mr.
Pinkie, 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 is brought to you by wicked clothes. Have you heard of Wicked Clothes? Well, they are an online clothing company that sells stuff that's a little creepy, a little funny and super cute. Think goth meets like dad jokes. You're gonna want to take a minute just to browse their site, even if you don't buy anything, because their designs are
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wickedclothes.com/dark history. A big thank you to Wicked Clothes for partnering with me on today's episode. Now, let's get back to the story. Puerto Rico is 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 fucking Sanger. 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. 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 were they all really doing? So 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 six 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 they're 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 eugenicist. And Margaret darling,
Margaret, pay attention, okay, you're 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? Arrh, 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 yes, let's do it,
let's fucking rage, man. And she did, you know, she did it. So many are truly confused
by Margaret Sanger, because these actions are maybe kinda, sorta racist, I don't know, and she seemed to have all these bad intentions, 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. Mmhn, 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 claims 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, 'cause duh, she basically made the damn thing, right? But, and again, this is my opinion, Margaret darling, Margret, 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 suspish girl. We even asked Linda Gordon, author of The Moral Property of Women, if she thought Margaret Sanger 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 would have 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, and 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? While the trial in Puerto Rico technically ended when the pill officially came out in 1960, so they 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 all 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 these whole story is that sterilizations are still being pushed to this very day. 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's 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. 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 the story, or just the freaking files on this story. You can't find any of them, hmm. 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 the 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 health care 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 kinda isn't one, it's hard to feel closure, when there 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 learning
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, gouge. Also, you can catch Murder
Mystery and Make Up, which drops every Monday on my YouTube. Anyways, I hope you have a really great rest of your day to day. You make good choices. Talk to you next week. Goodbye. Dark History is an Audioboom original. This podcast is executive produced by Chelsea Durgin, from Slash Management, and Ed Simpson from Wheelhouse DNA. Producer, Lexxi Kiven, Derrial Christon, and Spencer Strasmore. Research provided by Jed Bookout and Elizabeth Hyman. Writers, Jed Bookout, Michael Oberst, Joey Scavuzzo 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.
I loooooooove Bailey and this was my first episode I got around to and for some reason I'm finding it super hard to listen to the podcast :(
Is anyone else feeling this??
queen!!! 🖤🖤🖤💯💯
can someone explain her NAACP comment that was made? It was like halfway through and was a quote from someone and then she said “or maybe they were quoting a founder of the NAACP”. I can find a time stamp if needed but I was really confused what that meant
I just finished watching this! It was such an interesting episode
Queen bailey 😍