On May 9, 1960, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the birth control pill to be used only by a doctor’s prescription.
In an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer the following day, placed near the bottom of page nine, a FDA official stated “Approval was based on the question of safety ... . When the data convinced our experts that the drug meets the requirements of the new drug provisions our own ideas of morality had nothing to do with the case.” The FDA approved the contraceptive called Enovid and recommended that women take one tablet daily for 20 days each month. The cost of a month’s supply was $10.80.
