"This old maternity dress I’ve got is goin’ in the garbage The clothes I’m wearin’ from now on Won’t take up so much yardage Miniskirts, hot pants and a few little fancy frills
Yeah I’m makin’ up for all those years Since I’ve got the pill"
Anyone who remembers what maternity clothes looked like in the sixties and before, can appreciate this verse from "The Pill." If you don’t, then count yourself as fortunate indeed! Married at 13 and with six children in tow while she pursued her career, Loretta Lynn’s recording of "The Pill" in 1975 was autobiographical, as is most of her music. It wasn’t easy for any woman to access the revolutionary pill, which would soon open doors previously closed to women. Lynn was congratulated by several physicians in isolated, rural areas where women were unaware of the Pill until they heard her song which was released in 1975, more than a decade after its approval. Approved in 1960, and championed by Margaret Sanger, the head of Planned Parenthood in Connecticut was arrested in 1961 for providing the Pill. This led to a Supreme Court case which allowed only married women to take it. It was not until 1972 that single women were allowed a prescription for the Pill in the United States. The U.S. continues to have one of the highest rates of unwanted and teen pregnancies of any Western industrialized nation, largely due to the moral minority backlash, and resistance to contraception education in public schools.