Women Are Pawns in the Contraception War

Davina McCall’s new special, Pill Revolution, starts with an eye-catching visual: McCall, wearing a red dress and a megawatt gameshow host’s grin, spins a giant roulette wheel labelled with all the potential side effects of hormonal birth control. A dizzying array of horrors flies across the screen — HAIR LOSS! BLEEDING! WEIGHT GAIN! BLOOD CLOT! — before the camera pans to the “contestants”, a trio of stuffed animals sitting above nametags that read: GUINEA PIG.