Products of Con(tra)ception

Hormonal Birth Control Was Ill-Conceived from the Start

On the morning of September 26, 2018, twenty-year-old Alexandra (Alex) Williams collapsed in the driveway of her parents’ home in Durham, North Carolina. She was taken by ambulance to Duke University Medical Center, where some thirty doctors and nurses tried to revive her. Late that night, doctors told her parents they had done everything they could, but Alex showed no signs of responding. She died the following evening after being removed from life support.

Alex had been a healthy, active college student whose only prior illness had been strep throat when she was four. Her sudden demise, seemingly out of nowhere, was a complete mystery. Her body was in such bad shape that none of her organs or tissues were suitable for...