Abby Epstein and Ricki Lake
Emmy-award winners Abby Epstein and former syndicated talk show host Ricki Lake have produced a powerful documentary on the dark side of contraception which spells out the dangers of synthetic hormones without apology.
According to The Wrap, Epstein and Lake became interested in the project after receiving a copy of a book by Holly Grigg-Spall entitled, Sweetening the Pill: or How We Got Hooked on Hormonal Birth Control. After sitting on their desks for six months, they finally got around to reading it and knew instantly that women needed to have this information, particularly about the newer versions of birth control pills which have proven to be so dangerous.
Manufacturers of two of the most deadly versions, NuvaRing (Merck & Co.) and Yaz (Bayer), have paid out billions in lawsuits to women who were seriously harmed or killed from these drugs.
As Epstein explains, their film “follows some of the families that have lost their daughters and what they’re uncovering about what is going on with some of the larger Pharma companies. They basically assimilate the cost of paying out these lawsuits like it’s the cost of doing business. It’s disgusting.”
“We’re not saying, ‘Take these things off the market’,” Lake says. “But they’re not labelled properly. We’re meeting women who came very close to death, having gone to the doctor for weeks for symptoms that were not getting picked up. There’s no education, and at the same time the products are become more dangerous. Not to mention, you’re lucky if you get five minutes to talk to your doctor at Planned Parenthood. So there’s really no informed consent when it comes to this.”
Even worse, some parents are putting their very young daughters on these drugs for nothing more than mild cramping, not realizing how dangerous these drugs can be.
“And no one is studying this,” Epstein says. “If a young girl is taking the pill at 12 or 13, let’s say all those girls are staying on it for 20 years. No one is studying this! There are links made to fertility issues, there are links made to breast cancer. We talked to scientists, and no one is studying this long-term. We think this could be another little revolution if women see this [film] and start asking questions.”
Unfortunately, traditional entertainment companies are shying away from the project. “This film is a little bit scary, because people can’t get around the facts. Some people think its anti-birth-control. We actually want people to have more access to birth control. Even for feminists, it’s a very fine line,” Epstein says.
But the kind of birth control they’re promoting are natural methods – what they call “alternative birth control” – which are far safer.
“There are so many apps out there. We’re following a few of them, a few have even become sponsors of our film. One being Kindara, and another one called Clue,” Lake explains.
“They are these really fun, user-friendly apps that completely track your cycle, your mood swings, all kinds of side effects you may have. It basically leads to true body literacy. It helps you understand when you can get pregnant, when you can’t — and these are simple things you think that women know, but they don’t. Most women seem to think they can get pregnant any day out of the month, when the fact is there’s only a short window.”
Why medicate the whole body with dangerous drugs when you only need coverage for a few days?
The whole point of the film is to raise awareness among women, something Big Pharma would rather not see happen because “a lot of awareness doesn’t make the healthcare system any money,” Lake says.
Even the trailer for this documentary is gripping and contains multiple stories of young women whose lives were cut short by birth control pills.
Spread the word about the dangers of birth control! Our pamphlet, “The Phony War on Women is a Crime Against Humanity” is loaded with facts every woman deserves to hear.
