John Rock (American Scientist) - Pill Development and Promotion

Pill Development and Promotion

In 1951 and 1952, Margaret Sanger arranged for funding for Gregory Pincus's research of hormonal contraception. In 1952, John Rock was recruited to lead the clinical trials of the new contraceptive pill. In 1955, the team announced successful clinical trials of the first birth control pill. Enovid, the brand name of the first pill, was put on the market in 1957 as a menstrual regulator. In 1960, it gained approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a birth control method.

Rock was 70 years old when the birth control pill was approved. Biographies note that he could have retired even before Pincus approached him to help develop the pill. But over the next eight years, Rock campaigned vigorously for Roman Catholic approval of the pill. He published a book (The Time Has Come: A Catholic Doctor's Proposals to End the Battle over Birth Control), was featured in Time Magazine and in Newsweek, and gave a one-hour interview to NBC. In 1958, Pope Pius XII had approved use of the pill to treat menstrual disorders. Rock believed it was only a matter of time before the Catholic Church approved its use as a contraceptive.

In 1968 the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae entrenched Catholic opposition to hormonal contraception. Rock was profoundly disappointed. For the first time in his life, he stopped attending Mass.