The female contraceptive pill came on the market in the United States in 1960, and the response was overwhelming. In less than two years, 1.2 million American women were using the pill. In France, birth control was legalized a few years later by the 1967 Neuwirth Law. Since then, contraception has become more accessible and options have increased: the pill, condoms, implants, IUDs, etc. Yet the vast majority of contraceptives, especially hormonal contraception, are still intended for women only.
Why aren't there more accessible options for male contraception? In this short video, Le Monde looks back at the invention of the female pill in the 1950s by American biologist Gregory Pincus, and the development of other forms of male birth control in the decades that followed.