May 9th, 1960: FDA Approves Medicine To Give Women Greater Control Of Their Bodies, Infuriate Focus On The Family Drug policy is a touchy subject in America, and the Food and Drug Administration charged into it head-on with "the pill," otherwise known as birth control. The drugmaker, the G.D. Searle Company, was asked by the FDA to conduct thorough field tests before it was approved for the general market. The Catholic Church had lobbied against it for years, claiming it was artificial birth control, but the government stayed out of it. President Dwight Eisenhower said birth control "is not a proper political or government activity or function or responsibility [and] not our business." The FDA gave final OK and Enovid-10 was released to the public. Soon after, 13 other drug companies produced their own version of the pill, creating the birth control pill industry as we know it.