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ABOUT EIGHT YEARS ago, Ricki Lake and her producing partner Abby Epstein resolved to turn a critical eye on hormonal birth control. Their previous documentary, 2008\u2019s The Business of Being Born, emphasized the risks and expense of giving birth in a hospital. This new project would apply that same medical skepticism to ongoing conversations around hormonal contraceptives. \u201cIn 1960 the birth control pill was all about progress, but does it still fit with our values today?\u201d Lake and Epstein wondered in the project\u2019s Kickstarter campaign. \u201cDo we look to the tech sector to take on the challenge of providing women with alternatives to the pill?\u201d<\/p>\n
Like so much content that\u2019s \u201cjust asking questions,\u201d The Business of Birth Control seems to have a barely concealed agenda: to steer viewers away from hormonal contraception, and towards the tech-assisted \u201cnatural\u201d methods the film ultimately endorses.<\/p>\n
The documentary \u2014 which was released last month along with a $147 \u201cBody Literacy Masterclass,\u201d featuring many of the same doctors, authors, wellness gurus, and hormone coaches from the film \u2014 purports to be giving contraceptive users the information they need to make choices that serve them. But the film\u2019s many questionable claims about hormonal birth control seem designed not to inform viewers, but to persuade them. Whether it\u2019s alleging hormonal birth control risks that have no scientific backing, or making rare adverse events sound like common occurrences, the documentary\u2019s message is clear: In the words of one of the film\u2019s talking heads, \u201cWe\u2019re saying kill the pill before it kills you.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement to Rolling Stone, Lake and Epstein defended the documentary\u2019s intentions and material, as well as the integrity of the people who participated in the film. \u201cWe have one goal in making our documentaries: to empower people to make informed decisions about their health and the choices they have in front of them,\u201d they wrote. \u201cOur most recent film The Business of Birth Control presents well-documented and researched information that we believe people deserve to know. We stand behind the doctors, scientists, naturopaths, and hormonal health experts in our film who are highly regarded and have no financial ties to the documentary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rolling Stone reached out to several OB-GYNs and medical researchers to ask their opinion of the information within the film; all acknowledged the proven risks of hormonal birth control, but took issue with the terrifying picture painted by Lake and Epstein. \u201cI can definitively say birth control is an incredibly low risk medication,\u201d says Dr. Danielle Jones, a board-certified OB-GYN. \u201cBy every argument that you can come up with from a science and data standpoint, birth control should be over the counter because it is as safe or safer than almost everything you can purchase at Walgreens.\u201d<\/p>\n
The doctors agreed that many of the the anti-hormonal birth control advocates featured in the film are spreading potentially harmful misinformation, which feels at odds with the filmmakers\u2019 mission to inform and empower women. \u201cI have no agenda or vested interest in convincing anybody to do any type of birth control,\u201d says Dr. Rachel Flink, an OB-GYN in upstate New York. \u201cBut to villainize methods that are safe and effective and are beloved by many people feels more like a political agenda than actually caring about people and their decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Business of Birth Control tries to argue that pharmaceutical companies are profiting off dangerous contraceptives. But the film undermines this argument by presenting its own slate of products, including apps and thermometers that can be used to track periods and monitor fertility. In fact, some of the companies that are featured in the film are also financial backers \u2014 a relationship that\u2019s only revealed in the closing credits and separate promotional materials.( In a statement to Rolling Stone, Lake and Epstein said that their creative decisions are not influenced \u201cby the individuals or organizations who support\u201d their work. \u201cOur documentary films have never been sponsored,\u201d they wrote. \u201cWe include a list of Kickstarter contributors in the film credits, as do most documentaries that are crowdfunded. Our creative decisions are in no way influenced by the individuals or organizations who support our films.\u201d)<\/p>\n
One device that\u2019s featured heavily in the film uses a person\u2019s daily temperature to calculate if they are fertile. The system, called Daysy, markets itself as \u201cthe hormone-free solution for managing your fertility, cycles, and health.\u201d Though it\u2019s not clearly noted during the documentary, its promotional materials list Daysy\u2019s parent company, Valley Electronics, as a \u201ctheatrical release sponsor\u201d for the film. (It\u2019s listed as a financial backer during the credits.) What\u2019s more, the film\u2019s producer and author of Sweetening the Pill, Holly Grigg-Spall, worked on \u201claunching the Daysy fertility tracker in the U.S.,\u201d according to her LinkedIn. As recently as 2020, she was described as a \u201cbrand ambassador\u201d for the device. (Grigg-Spall did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)<\/p>\n
Valley Electronics has been accused of peddling misinformation in the past. Chelsea Polis, an independent research consultant in sexual and reproductive health, has consistently challenged the company on its claims. Beginning around 2017, Polis says, she became concerned that Valley Electronics was marketing the Daysy device as a contraceptive method \u2014 even though it was not FDA-approved as such\u2014and claiming it was as effective as an IUD. In 2018, Valley Electronics published a study on its product\u2019s supposed effectiveness. Polis successfully called on the journal that published the study to retract it, arguing that its \u201cunreliable\u201d estimates of contraceptive effectiveness \u201ccould leave consumers more vulnerable to the risk of unintended pregnancy.\u201d When Polis subsequently described Valley Electronics as \u201cunethical\u201d and their study as \u201cjunk science,\u201d the company responded with a million-dollar defamation suit, which has since been dismissed. \u201cThis is a very clear example of a company trying to silence a scientist for speaking out truthfully and in evidence-based ways in their area of expertise,\u201d she says. Valley Electronics did not respond to Rolling Stone\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n
As more and more products flood the market, Polis emphasizes the need for better oversight and clear marketing. \u201cIf you were using a pill, you would want know that it had been studied for effectiveness and for safety, and you would want to know that there had been some regulatory oversight of whatever claims were being made. And I think that the same should hold true for people who are interested in using apps or devices.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no such thing as a good moment to spread misinformation, but The Business of Birth Control is particularly ill-timed. With Roe v. Wade at the brink of repeal, abortions will most likely become even more inaccessible in this country. Enter a documentary that\u2019s stacked with \u201cexperts\u201d trying to convince those in need of birth control that these safe and effective drugs are actually massive threats to their wellbeing, and that they\u2019d be better served by returning to \u201cnatural\u201d methods.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole sum of this drives patients away from birth control altogether,\u201d says Dr. Kate White, a practicing gynecologist, the Vice-Chair of Academics and the director of the Fellowship in Family Planning at Boston Medical Center, and the author of Your Sexual Health. \u201cEverything gets lumped together as, \u2018It\u2019s all dangerous. It\u2019s all a scam. I don\u2019t want to use any of it.\u2019 And if people are okay getting pregnant, that\u2019s totally fine. But for some people, unintended pregnancy is absolutely catastrophic.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a clear risk of patients rejecting hormonal birth control and embracing less effective methods, only to experience an unplanned pregnancy that they are then unable to terminate. Fertility awareness methods like the ones highlighted in the film involve monitoring signs and interpreting them accurately. Many people, from those with irregular periods to those whose work schedule or lifestyle won\u2019t allow them to execute the method perfectly, won\u2019t be prime candidates. Dr. Flink balked at \u201cthe idea of telling the average 22-year-old to throw out the thing that we know is 99 percent effective at preventing pregnancy and use this thing that requires a lot of work and has a huge range of effectiveness instead.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy biggest concern with this kind of movement and the time it\u2019s occurring is that there\u2019s going to be a downtrend in contraception that works the most effectively,\u201d Dr. Selina Sandoval, a board-certified OB-GYN and fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health, tells Rolling Stone. \u201cAt the same time that we have the lowest access to abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond individual outcomes, doctors are afraid that this brand of anti-birth control rhetoric could be weaponized by the right. \u201cI really worry that as we are entering a time that abortion\u2019s going to become illegal in half the country, that conservatives who genuinely don\u2019t believe in women having the right to control their own reproduction are going to come after birth control next,\u201d Dr. White tells Rolling Stone. \u201cAnd they can point to these headlines and stories and say, \u2018See, women are being harmed by these things, so we need to ban them.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs feminists,\u201d Lake and Epstein said in a statement to Rolling Stone, \u201cwe believe in unfettered access to all forms of birth control and abortion.\u201d The filmmakers argued that failing to discuss the side effects of birth control actually benefits anti-choice advocates by allowing them to \u201ccontrol the narrative.\u201d In light of current attacks on reproductive freedom, Epstein and Lake continued, \u201cwe believe that body literacy is more important than ever, and we are actively supporting women and GNC people in having greater control over their fertility and well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Business of Birth Control boldly bills itself as \u201credefining the meaning of reproductive justice,\u201d a movement founded by Black women to expand the conversation around reproductive rights. The film shines an important light on abhorrent histories of forced sterilization and exploitative drug trials, particularly in communities of color. But these legacies seem to be invoked with the aim of placing current hormonal birth control methods on this timeline of atrocities \u2014 the latest in a long line of horrors unleashed on black and brown patients. Dr. White calls this argument a \u201cperversion\u201d of the movement it references. \u201cIf we start to take away methods of contraception, it is absolutely people of color and economically disadvantaged patients who are going to suffer the most,\u201d she says. \u201cThe people who reproductive justice is trying to lift up and elevate to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Acknowledging the racist history of the development of birth control does not mean that \u201cthe current medications available are bad,\u201d Dr. Jones tells Rolling Stone. \u201cAnd it gets even more concerning when you look at who is behind these things, because it\u2019s very rarely going to be a marginalized person of color. It\u2019s almost always going to be a very wealthy person who is white. So how are we using this historical information? Are we using it to make sure that we move forward in a way that is anti-racist and avoids these things happening again in the future, or are we using it to further marginalize people of color and achieve our goals of making a bunch of money from a documentary?\u201d<\/p>\n
View this article at The Rolling Stone<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Problem With Ricki Lake\u2019s \u2018The Business of Birth Control\u2019: ABOUT EIGHT YEARS ago, Ricki Lake and her producing partner Abby Epstein resolved to turn a critical eye on hormonal birth control. Their previous documentary, 2008\u2019s The Business of Being Born, emphasized the risks and expense of giving birth in a hospital. This new project
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