Carl Djerassi, one of the three co-inventors of the Pill back in the 1950s, has recently acknowledged a “demographic catastrophe” due to birth control. He is the chemist who first developed synthetic progesterone. This was a key step in the development and marketing of the first oral contraceptive—the “Pill,” because it did not break down when taken orally, as natural progesterone does.
According to a website biography, he had absolutely no intentions of developing a birth control drug although he has been frequently referred to as the father of the Pill.
He was born into a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria (October 29, 1923), moved to Bulgaria in 1939 to escape the Nazis, and then moved to the United States in 1941. He earned his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin in 1945 and became a professor of Chemistry at Stanford University in 1959. That was shortly after his development of synthetic progesterone.
In 1981 Djerassi was awarded the Nobel prize in physics for development of laser spectroscopy; in 1991 he closed his laboratory, and in 2002 he said goodbye to classroom teaching.
In 2001 Stanford University issued a press release about Professor Djerassi on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Pill. It noted that in his new book to be released on October 15 that year, The Man’s Pill, he reflected on his role in the development of the Pill. In flattering terms he wrote of his extended influence through that invention. Before that, he says, he had been a rather detached scientist, but the Pill made him more socially conscious for which he was proud.
Last October, at age 85, the Professor wrote an article the Austrian newspaper, Der Standard, in October, 2008 on the occasion of his birthday and the 50th anniversary of the Anschluss. In it he reflected on the demographics of Austria. He also noted that in most of Europe there is now “no connection at all between sexuality and reproduction… This divide in Catholic Austria, a country which has on average 1.4 children per family, is now complete.” Understandably, this was reported by some to be a repudiation of the Pill. Not so, replied Djerassi on January 27 in the The Guardian, an English publication.
His real subject of attack, he said was an anti-immigration bloc in Austria, “I warned against an impending demographic catastrophe. Without immigration, a country requires 2.1 children per family to maintain its population level; so those xenophobic Austrians would have to have at least three children (which I considered totally unlikely) in order to raise the small size of most of their compatriots’ families to a national average of 2.1.
“I drew attention to Bulgaria, a country to which I fled in 1938 from Nazi Austria, and which possesses roughly the same current population, age distribution and average family size (1.4 children) as Austria. Nobody these days wants to emigrate to Bulgaria, in contrast to Austria or other western European countries. As a result, demographic estimates predict a 35% drop in Bulgaria’s current population by 2050.
“I also indicated that Germany’s family size (1.3 children) requires an annual immigration of 200,000 just to maintain the current population. Consequently, I emphasised the need in Austria for continuing immigration.”
The retired professor remains in denial. He doesn’t deny that birth control has had a catastrophic effect on the population of Europe, but he denies that the Pill is responsible for it. It is true that there are other methods of birth control, but to deny the key role of the Pill in kindling the sexual revolution is to be morally and intellectually blind. The purveyors of sexual promiscuity, pornography, and abortion are deeply indebted to Carl Djerassi. The rest of us are indebted for another reason. He developed a synthetic hormone that is used in pest control.
Harvard AIDS Researcher Backs the Pope: This is must reading in the context of all the criticism that the Pope has received for his statements on AIDS.
John F. Kippley