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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 12, 2004)
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Live “ ^ : •** r Music .am® y® m imtl* .<sz ONE HOUR FREE POOL with coupon Mon-Thurs 8PM-10PM Cannot be combined with other specials. 226 Southwest Parkway College Station 694-4700 timesquarebar.com Appearing Live at Time Square April - May Randy Pavlock, Throwaway People, Karan Chavis, Element, Veritas, Sevenfold, Seth James, Ian Moore, Canvas, Ultrasonic, Vallejo, Hadden Sayers, Nooner, Squint, Malford Milligan of Storyville, Del Castillo, Triprocket, Stingers ATX, Roca Azul, Leon Russell, Hamilton Loomis, Rusty Wier, Kelly McGuire, Cowboy Mouth line-up and dates subject to change , , r~r~\ time I Wendy’s | I * 1 SQUARE i r 3 Q- <8 8A Monday, April 12, 2004 Anger over Puerto Rico T s pill test lingei It D o *7 /An i f '.i i I 1 a “mi ‘ I % \ By Ray Quintanilla KRT CAMPUS HUMACAO, Puerto Rico — When Delia Mestre was a young woman, a hospital social worker would visit families throughout her barrio, offering the women something that seemed too good to be true: A tiny tablet to keep them from getting pregnant. “We all jumped on it quickly and didn't look back,” Mestre, 60, recalled. “Women were told this was medicine that would keep them from having children they couldn't support.” Nearly a half-century has passed since doctors began arriving here to begin the longest-running experiment of its kind: nine years of veiled research that helped pave the way for a “magic pill” now regarded as one of the pivotal social and medical changes of the 20th century. What unfolded from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s in this remote farming town in the foothills near Puerto Rico's east coast made Mestre and hundreds of other women the unwitting pioneers of the mod ern sexual revolution. It remains one of the most controversial chapters in the island's history — notably because participants weren't infonued that they were guinea pigs in an experiment to test the world's first birth-control pill, a tablet with three times as much honnones as today’s version. There were other test groups on the mainland at the time, but similar experiments in Boston and other cities didn't last very long, partly because of the pill’s side effects. In Humacao, the testing went on for years. It s difficult to think of those days, said Mestre, among the last generation of Humacao women who took part in the clinical trials of Enovid and a Delia Mestre (left) and Nancy Cruz experiences with the birth control pill right) recount their in its initial stages of testing and development Both women parties some of the first human trials of the drugs. collection of similar drugs that have come to be known univer sally as "the pill.’’ Generations later, bitter feel ings still simmer. Secrecy about the experimental nature of the pills helped prompt federal offi cials to ban such practices. “The experiments were both good and bad. Why didn’t any one let us make some decisions for ourselves?" she asked, her eyes welling with tears. "I have difficulty explaining that time to my own grown children. “1 have very' mixed feelings about the entire thing.” Humacao is a gritty village tucked between the Cerro and Labarbera mountains. It was here that doctors found their best “control group.” starting in 1955. The doctors provided hun dreds of women — descendants of Puerto Rico's jiharo agricul tural underclass — with refined versions of the pill for free until 1964 to test its safety and how well it worked. In the early days, the doctor who ran the tests noted pub licly, that two seemingly healthy women participating in the trials died. No autopsies were done to determine what caused their deaths. Those who remember the times best recall U.S. doctors, dressed in white lab coats, arriv ing to deliver their babies. Soon, however, they were recruiting women to try the drug. Margaret Sanger, the women's activist who in the 1930s first envisioned a “magic pill” to prevent pregnancy, reportedly visited doctors in the town to lend moral support. In no time, new mothers at Ryder Memorial Hospital were accepting birth-control pills. Physicians dispatched their assistants to rap on doors throughout the town's slums. She' :he ii the fami telling women they didnr tran ; to have another chili took the pills regularly That’s how many o recruits were four Conchita Santos, 80,aHi!- conv resident her entire It was only a few year CCS Puerto Rico became aUii diet, monwealth that doctors good seeking people to test theirs outki these neighborhoods - ii of small concrete homes chickens roam and some[« even still get around on hotselai Santos and other Catholic women were »i by their parish priests none the pills. It was not only i they were told.butitalsoali God's will. Santos, a accepted her first pills in 1955, sh birth of her first and By the end of at Ryder had recnti 500 participants. L; next will sion; gradi this < othe NEWS IN BRIEF Suspect denies setting fires in San Antonio SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A man accused of spark ing a series of fires at convenience stores owned or operated by Muslims says he is innocent. “I did not do it," Thomas C. Carroll, who was arrested Friday outside a convenience store which had just been set ablaze, told the San Antonio Express-News for a Sunday story. It was the fourth fire at a store owned or operated by Muslims in the past two weeks in San Antonio. Carroll, 32, was charged with two counts of arson. He was a suspect in three other cases and was being held at Bexar County Jail on a bond of more than $1 million Sunday. Texas judicial district sees jump in bankruptcy filings HOUSTON (AP) — Three years ago. Adrian Caspar made as much as $100,000 a year working as a police officer and moonlighting as a security guard at local construction sites. But the 39-year-old from Manvel, near Houston, found himself fighting off last year as new construction dried up economic slump. He resorted to bankruptcy when hem things to sell, becoming one of 25,2111 uals to file for personal bankruptcy in Southern District of Texas. The judicial district saw a 23.2 increase in bankruptcy filings between and 2003 — the highest increase ii Personal bankruptcy filings increased! cent nationwide and 15 percent in Ii Houston Chronicle reported Sunday. Cl ass Councils Presents: I he 67th A nnual Ring D ance “A Night on the To wn April 24, 2004 9 p.m. - 1a.m. I ickets aval lahle at the MSC Box Office For A Complete Listing of Senior Week Events Visit Classof2004.tamu.edu Sponsored hy I he Association of Former Students, Rose Cottage Creations, David Gardner’s Jewelers and Al’s Formal Wear. Corps needs Americans with skills in Environment EdU c a tion Health Peace Corps needs 5,500 graduates with skills in agriculture, business, education, environment, health and information technology. All majors are welcome. Benefits include medical, dental and housing, as well as a monthly stipend and 24 vacation days a year. Graduates can defer student loans while serving. 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