THE CONTRACEPTIVE PILL (Hansard, 22 January 1970)

§ BARONESS SUMMERSKILL
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

§ BARONESS LLEWELYN-DAVIES OF HASTOE
My Lords, Her Majesty's Government are aware of the decision taken by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States to suspend further clinical studies with oral contraceptives containing only chlormadinone acetate. Our Committee on Safety of Drugs has asked for full details of the evidence upon which the American decision was based. It has already received some details, which it is actively considering at this moment. The Committee is in touch with the manufacturers here of such contraceptives, and they also have the matter under urgent consideration. Her Majesty's Government see no justification for withdrawing all oral contraceptives from the market.

§ BARONESS SUMMERSKILL
My Lords, how can my noble friend reconcile that Answer with the position? Does she recall that last month the women of this country were told that 21 of the oral contraceptives on the market were dangerous because they had a high oestrogen content and that this pill was safe because it did not have a high oestrogen content? The United States Food and Drug Administration now say that although it has no oestrogen at all it is dangerous. Should we not therefore be guided by the Food and Drug Administration and withdraw it, even while further consideration is being given to it?

§ BARONESS LLEWELYN-DAVIES OF HASTOE
My Lords, I entirely understand and sympathise, as indeed will the whole House, with my noble friend's concern in these matters, but I think it is absolutely right that our highly qualified professional and technical experts should investigate these findings; and that is precisely what they are doing.

§ BARONESS GAITSKELL
My Lords, arising out of the Question, may I ask the following supplementary question? Would not the Minister agree that my noble friend is lacking in a sense of proportion when asking the Government for the withdrawal of all contraceptive pills, particularly as it is well known that the dangers of cigarette smoking far outweigh any minimal dangers attaching to the pill? A recent poll showed that 41 per cent. of women are smokers and that though there are 18 million—

§ LORD SHACKLETON
My Lords, will the noble Baroness give way? I am sorry, but I feel, in fairness, that the noble Baroness is also developing a debate; and I am not sure that a question whether one of our noble friends is lacking a sense of proportion is an entirely appropriate matter for the Government to answer.

§ BARONESS GAITSKELL
My Lords, may I just conclude? I apologise if I have offended my noble friend, but would not the Minister agree that there are 18 million women around the world taking the pill, 8½ million of them in America, and that there is still no hard evidence that there are any alarming dangers attached to the pill?

§ BARONESS LLEWELYN-DAVIES OF HASTOE
My Lords, I should not like to confirm my noble friend's figures—I have not got them in front of me—and still less would I take on such a dangerous operation as she asked me previously. But I would point out that the great difference between England and the United States is that in the United States these oral contraceptives are obtainable from slot machines, whereas in this country they can be obtained only on the prescription of the woman's own doctor. That is a very great difference.

§ BARONESS SUMMERSKILL
My Lords, may I ask my noble friend one 227 more supplementary? Does she realise, in relation to these 21 pills which last month the women of this country were told not to take, that last year and the year before that our women were told that they were quite safe? Therefore, how can we have any confidence that the people who are advising her now are advising correctly? The other question I should like to ask concerning the Food and Drug Administration of the United States is: does my noble friend recall that it was the Food and Drug Administration who refused to allow thalidomide to be distributed in the United States? We ignored their advice then, with the result that we had many deformed children.

§ BARONESS LLEWELYN-DAVIES OF HASTOE
My Lords, in answer to the first part of my noble friend's supplementary question, the point about the oral contraceptives which the Drugs Safety Committee advised against in December last is that they contained oestrogens. That raised a different issue from the one in the case of "Normenon", which is concerned with the results of research in the United States and experiments with dogs. So far as can be seen at present, there is no link with humans, and no experiments have taken place. It is important to keep this in mind. Nevertheless, the Drugs Safety Committee is investigating, as a matter of urgency, whether there might be any such adverse effect as has been found in America. That brings me to the second part of the supplementary question. There is a great difference with regard to the situation in the case of thalidomide, because in the days of the thalidomide tragedy there was no Drugs Safety Committee in this country; and there now is.

§ BARONESS BIRK
My Lords, would not the Minister agree that with half a million women in this country "on the pill" and about 20 deaths a year from side effects, if the Government were panicked into withdrawing all contraceptive pills the increase in deaths arising from pregnancy or abortions would be greater, and that to take this action would be not only unwise but actually fatal? Would the Minister also agree that the 228 answer surely is to put more money into research, so as to find a safer pill?

§ BARONESS LLEWELYN-DAVIES OF HASTOE
My Lords, I agree with a great deal of what my noble friend has said. Her experience as Chairman of the Health Education Committee is relevant in this matter. A great deal of money is being spent on research. The Medical Research Council, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the best medical brains, are engaged in this constantly. I think that the principle which underlies all this is that women should have the freedom to choose, on the advice of their medical practitioners, the form of contraception they feel suits them best.