7 – Overpopulation and the Birth Control Controversy

Margaret Sanger (left) devoted her life to legalizing birth control and making it universally available for women. Starting with a campaign to legalize effective contraceptives, Sanger and Katharine McCormick later promoted and financed Dr. Gregory Pincus's Enovid (below left), the first oral contraceptive pill in 1960.  This gave women, for the first time, the opportunity to plan pregnancies and to freely engage in sexual activities.  This ability, along with the high cost of living in western societies, has lead to a major population decline relative to the rates of growth found in the developing nations (see below middle).

However, the legalization, production and consumption of contraceptives is a point of contention in  the secular west and is especially controversial traditional, highly-religious societies such as the Catholic Philippines (below right) and the Muslim Middle East.