Tebbutt and Skinner applaud celebration of 50 years of The Pill

Last night, the tiniest of pills had a huge celebration at Parliament House.

To celebrate the anniversary of the oral contraceptive pill, both Carmel Tebbutt, Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, and Jillian Skinner, Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Minister for Health attended and spoke at the launch of Family Planning NSW’s Taking It: 50 years of The Pill. 

An electronic version of Taking It: 50 Years of The Pill is available for download: click here

“The advent of The Pill - which was, of course, easy to use, reliable and relatively safe - allowed subsequent generations of women to make choices about their future  that previous generations could probably only have dreamed of,” said The Hon Carmel Tebbutt.

The event, coinciding with World Contraception Day on 26 September, was attended by various Members of the NSW Parliament and some of Australia’s notable medical professionals and social commentators.

This commemorative booklet features medical, political and social commentary from prominent figures in Australia, such as: Dr Edith Weisberg AM,  Jane Caro and Wendy McCarthy AO.

“I hope it (the booklet) is read and used by many people,  because it carries an important message about the importance of family planning, the importance of particularly young women understanding they need to be responsible for planning their families and taking care of their sexual health," said Jillian Skinner.

This year marks a significant milestone for the women across the world, and in particular in Australia, as it’s been 50 years since The Pill emerged  and created enormous changes in the lives of women, men and families. 

“So important was its advent for half the world’s population that, no matter how many millions of different types of pills there are this is the only one to almost instantly earn the right to have the word ‘the’ in front of the word ‘pill’,” wrote Jane Caro, one of the authors, in the booklet. “Given my 30 years writing ads for all sorts of brands (some of them were even pills) I can tell you this is the Holy Grail in productland.”

The booklet outlines the tremendous history, social and medical, which surrounds The Pill, and even looks into the future of what could be next in contraception.

An electronic version of Taking It: 50 Years of The Pill is available for download: click here

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Family Planning NSW has been helping people make informed choices about their reproductive and sexual health for more than 80 years. We are an independent, not-for-profit organisation focusing on the contribution to, promotion, collection and dissemination of reproductive and sexual health knowledge, information and learning to people in NSW.

Family Planning NSW has clinics operating in Ashfield, Fairfield, Penrith, Newcastle, Illawarra, and Dubbo, providing medical services, health promotion and reproductive education to thousands of men and women every year.