历史记载: 避孕药（“The Pill”）
1953年，应玛格丽特·桑格（Margaret Sanger）的要求，美国生物学家格里高利 G. 平卡斯（Gregory G. Pincus）着手研制口服避孕药。利用化学家卡尔·杰若西（Carl Djerassi）和弗兰克·科尔通（Frank Colton）（为不同的制药公司工作）早期的激素研究成果，格里高利 G. 平卡斯能够合成口服避孕药。然后，与哈佛大学产科医师约翰·洛克（John Rock）一起（实际上主持这一人体试验研究工作的是在该机构的著名华裔生殖生物学家张明觉博士，在生殖生物学中他的其他重要贡献包括”精子获能”和植入中的“同步作用”——校者注。），他起初在马塞诸萨州、后来在波多黎各对这种口服避孕药进行了人体试验。1960年，口服避孕药在美国（洛杉矶——译者注）规模化投入使用。可是，因为首批避孕药含有过量的激素，以至于有严重的副作用，不久就被禁用。因此，随后新研制避孕药的激素含量被进一步减少，直至达到现今为绝大多数妇女安全使用的规范剂量。

无论避孕药是否或因此使女性增加了性自由，它遭致许多团体的强烈抵制，其中抵制最为强烈的团体是天主教。这使约翰·洛克感到非常哀伤，他仍然始终坚信避孕药是一种完全符合其宗教信仰的“自然的”避孕法。

Contraception

A Complex Issue 

Historical Notes: “The Pill”
In 1953, at the request of Margaret Sanger, Gregory G. Pincus, an American biologist, started working on the development of an oral contraceptive. Taking advantage of earlier hormonal research by the chemists Carl Djerassi and Frank Colton, who worked for different pharmaceutical companies, he was able to produce a contraceptive pill. Together with John Rock, an obstetrician at Harvard, he then began human trials of the new pill first in Massachusetts, later in Puerto Rico. In 1960 the pill became generally available in the US.
Soon it turned out, however, that the hormonal doses in these first pills were much too high and that they had severe side effects. Subsequently, therefore, the dosage in newer pills was reduced further and further until the manufacturers arrived at the formulas used today that are safe for most women.

In spite - or because - of the increased sexual freedom the pill brought to women, the pill encountered enormous opposition from many quarters, most prominent among them the Catholic church. This greatly distressed John Rock, a devout Catholic who remained convinced to the end that the pill was a "natural" form of contraception completely in line with his religious belief.