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Confusion on the Pill
I am writing to comment on
the article “What About the
Pill?” which appeared in The
Washington Post Sept. 18.

Unfortunately, this article

served only to compound “the
confusion and contradictions
which permeated the news ac-
counts interpreting the re-
port.”

The author [Dr. Joshua Led-

erberg] quoted the committee —

as stating that it found no ade-
quate scientific data at this
time proving these compounds
unsafe for human use, but he
did not go on to state that
neither did the committee find
data to establish their safety.

He writes that each physi-
cian does indeed carry the
moral and legal responsibility
to evaluate the benefits and
risks of the pill for his indi-
vidual patient, ignoring the
fact that this committee of ex-
perts was uhable to make that
very decision one way or the
other.

He compares the risk of us- —

ing the pill with the risk of
abortions, driving ay automo-
bile, or flying in an airplane,
instead of with well-estab-
lished safe and effective meth-
ods of contraception.

He states that “the medical
use of contraceptive drugs was
first approved by the FDA on
the basis of experience with
some few hundred or thousand
women...” yet in the book,
The Therapeutic Nightmare,
by Mr. Norton Mintz we find
it well dt cumented that there
were fat fewer than 200
women itivoived.

Frankly, I find the authors’
interpretation of the report
contradictory and confusing.

DAVID J. KIERNAN, M.D.
Arlington.

“

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