Edris Rice-Wray Carson

She was born in New York City, New York. Rice-Wray attended Vassar College, where she specialized in public health, and graduated in 1927.{{Cite web |last=Clutterbuck-Cook |first=Hanna |date=July 22, 2019 |title=Edris Rice-Wray Papers Open to Research |url=https://countway.harvard.edu/news/edris-rice-wray-papers-open-research |access-date=February 25, 2024 |website=Harvard University}} She also attended Cornell University where she was a member of the Alpha Phi sorority.{{Cite web |title=Health and Medicine |url=http://www.alphaphi.org/aboutus/famousphis/healthandmedicine |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308104332/http://www.alphaphi.org/aboutus/famousphis/healthandmedicine |archive-date=March 8, 2016 |access-date=February 22, 2016 |website=Alpha Phi}}{{Cite web |title=Alpha Phi: Famous Phis |url=http://condor.depaul.edu/alphaphi/alphaphifamous.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140929064435/https://condor.depaul.edu/alphaphi/alphaphifamous.html |archive-date=September 29, 2014 |access-date=February 22, 2016 |website=DePaul University}} She received the Sesquicentennial Award for "knowledge, wisdom and courage of service" from the University of Michigan in 1967.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y_PhAAAAMAAJ |title=The Michigan Alumnus |date=1967 |publisher=Alumni Association of the University of Michigan |language=en}}

Rice-Wray worked as a doctor at Northwestern University and had a long career working for the advancement of public health.{{Cite book |last=Eig |first=Jonathan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yFvnAwAAQBAJ |title=The Birth of the Pill: How Four Pioneers Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution |date=October 23, 2014 |publisher=Pan Macmillan |isbn=9780230770157}}{{Page needed|date=February 2024}} She went to Puerto Rico in 1948 and was a faculty member of the Puerto Rico Medical School and medical director of the Puerto Rico Family Planning Association. It was there that she headed the first large-scale clinical trials working for over 17 years until the United Nations called her to work in Mexico. File:Edris Rice Wray M.D..jpg]]

{{Main|Contraceptive trials in Puerto Rico}}

In the early 1950s, Rice-Wray's work was focused on studying the effectiveness of the birth control pill. In order to prove the safety of the pill, researchers and activists including John Rock, Margaret Sanger and Katherine McCormick felt human trials had to be conducted. During this time Rice-Wray was working for the Puerto Rican Health Service.{{Cite news |last=Crossette |first=Barbara |date=May 17, 1975 |title=One Long-Range Study of Pill Has Yet to Find a Medical Case Against It |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/05/17/archives/one-longrange-study-of-pill-has-yet-to-find-a-medical-case-against.html |work=New York Times}} Puerto Rico was selected as the location for these trials in 1955 in part because there was an existing network of birth control clinics serving low-income women on the island and liberalized laws existed regarding distributing information about family planning.{{Cite book |last=Watkins |first=Elizabeth Siegel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jqbmtSPMfXYC |title=On the Pill: A Social History of Oral Contraceptives, 1950-1970 |date=March 7, 2011 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=9781421403717}}{{Page needed|date=February 2024}} In 1937, a law had been passed in Puerto Rico that made it legal for married couples to receive advice about contraception.{{Cite news |last=Gruson |first=Sydney |date=May 13, 1955 |title=San Juan Talks Open on Birth Control; Theme Held Key to Caribbean Problems |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1955/05/13/archives/san-juan-talks-open-on-birth-control-theme-held-key-to-caribbean.html |url-access=subscription |work=New York Times}} Since accessing the pill was legal, trials began there in 1956. In April 1956, Rice-Wray had been working with the Family Planning Association of Puerto Rico and joined this project.{{Cite book |last=Rock |first=John |url=https://archive.org/details/timehascomecatho0000rock |title=The Time Has Come |publisher=Knopf |year=1963 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/timehascomecatho0000rock/page/166 166] |url-access=registration}} Some of the women who participated in the study received the first combined oral contraceptive pill, Enovid. In 1956, she started to distribute the pills.{{Cite book |last=Eig |first=Jonathan |title=The Birth of the Pill |publisher=W.W. Norton |year=2014 |isbn=9780393073720 |location=New York |pages=238}} Rice-Wray noticed early on that there were potentially problematic side effects from the dosage in the early birth control pill.{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-puerto-rico-pill-trials/|title=The Puerto Rico Pill Trials|website=PBS|access-date=July 15, 2019}} Her concerns were initially dismissed by Dr. Rock and Gregory Pincus, who argued the concerns raised by women were unfounded.{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-puerto-rico-pill-trials/|title=The Puerto Rico Pill Trials|website=PBS|access-date=July 15, 2019}} Rice-Wray handled the fieldwork in the studies; however, she was eventually forced to leave her position in the Health Department as her studies were seen to conflict with it. She then went on to set up similar trials in Haiti and Mexico.{{Cite book |last1=Saetnan |first1=Ann Rudinow |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OJ7OXgC3z_IC |title=Bodies of Technology: Women's Involvement with Reproductive Medicine |last2=Oudshoorn |first2=Nelly |date=2000 |publisher=Ohio State University Press |isbn=9780814208465 |pages=156–160 |language=en |via=Google Books}} In 1958 she founded Mexico's first family planning clinic in Mexico City. In Mexico she faced opposition from both the government and the Roman Catholic Church.

Rice-Wray saw a direct link between large family sizes and poverty. In 1955, she was reported as saying, "When all Puerto Rican parents can have the number of children they want and can properly care for, much of the misery and desperation of our poorer classes can be eliminated...then employment opportunities, schooling, housing, medical and welfare services will have a chance of meeting the needs of our people." Despite the controversial nature of fertility research, Rice-Wray's research was closely watched and reported on in the United States. In 1963, The New York Times reported on the details of her research as part of their coverage on a Planned Parenthood conference.{{Cite news |last=Lawrence |first=William L. |date=February 19, 1963 |title=Report on New Oral Contraceptive |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1963/02/19/archives/report-on-new-oral-contraceptive-conference-is-told-of-100-results.html |url-access=subscription |work=New York Times}}File:Prosalud Maternal Clinic Association.jpg

Rice-Wray was the daughter of Mabel and Theron Canfield Rice-Wray, who were married in 1903.{{Cite journal |last=Rice-Wray |first=Edris |last2=Rice-Wray |first2=Colston |date=1940–1944 |title=In Memoriam: Mabel Rice-Wray Ives |url=https://bahai-library.com/pdf/bw/memoriam_bw_9.pdf |journal=The Baháʼí World: A Biennial International Record |location=Wilmette, Ill. |publisher=Baháʼí Publishing Trust |volume=IX |issue=}} Originally from New York City, Rice-Way spent much of her adult life in Mexico and Puerto Rico. Faith was an important aspect of her personal life. She was one of the early followers of the Baháʼí Faith in Mexico{{Cite web |date=March 27, 2021 |title=Edris Roushan Rice-Wray |url=https://bahaichronicles.org/7734-2/ |access-date=February 26, 2024 |website=Bahai Chronicles}} and obtained the rights to the Spanish translation of the Baháʼí Faith book Portals of Freedom while in Mexico.{{Cite book |last=Ives |first=Howard Colby |title=Portales a La Libertad}}

She received several awards for her work in publicizing the effectiveness and benefits of the pill in Latin America; she was the recipient of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America's award and received the Margaret Sanger Award in 1978.{{Cite book |last1=Ogilvie |first1=Marilyn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rUCUAgAAQBAJ |title=The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century |last2=Harvey |first2=Joy |date=December 16, 2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781135963439 |page=1093 |language=en |author-link=Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie |author-link2=Joy Harvey |via=Google Books}}

She showed a long-standing commitment to public health and wellness. Gregory Pincus, who was often credited with creating the pill, would often cite the work of Rice-Wray as being instrumental to its success.

File:Diplima of Vassar and Nothweastern for Dr. Edris Rice-Wray.jpg

By the 1970s she moved to Puebla, Mexico, in the municipality of Cholula where she worked as professor at UDLA (University of the Americas Puebla) in the fields of ecology, anthropology and population studies. Rice-Wray contributed her knowledge in medicine, including regarding the contraceptive pill, in San Pedro Cholula and San Andrés Cholula, Puebla.

She was one of the signatories of the agreement to convene a convention for drafting a world constitution.{{Cite web |date=1961 |title=Letters from Thane Read asking Helen Keller to sign the World Constitution for world peace |url=https://www.afb.org/HelenKellerArchive?a=d&d=A-HK01-07-B149-F04-022.1.8 |access-date=July 1, 2023 |website=American Foundation for the Blind: Helen Keller Archive |publisher=}}{{Cite web |title=Letter from World Constitution Coordinating Committee to Helen, enclosing current materials |url=https://www.afb.org/HelenKellerArchive?a=d&d=A-HK01-07-B154-F05-028.1.6 |access-date=July 3, 2023 |website=American Foundation for the Blind: Helen Keller Archive}} As a result, for the first time in human history, a World Constituent Assembly convened to draft and adopt the Constitution for the Federation of Earth.{{Cite web |title=Preparing earth constitution |url=http://encyclopedia.uia.org/en/strategy/193465 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230719215501/https://encyclopedia.uia.org/en/strategy/193465 |archive-date=July 19, 2023 |access-date=July 15, 2023 |website=Union of International Associations: The Encyclopedia of World Problems}}

During the last days of her life, she lived in Cholula, Puebla, Mexico, and died at her home in San Andres Cholula, accompanied by her daughters and grandchildren in 1990.{{Cite web |date=1987 |title=Edris Rice-Wray Oral History, Interviewed by Ellen Chesler and James Reed |url=https://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss349.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190609131109/https://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss349.html |archive-date=June 9, 2019 |access-date=July 15, 2019}}

• [https://www.facebook.com/EdrisMedicalDoctor/timeline Dr. Edris Roushan Rice-Wray Simons]
• [http://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC2281019&blobtype=pdf Reproduccion Following Oral Contracenpcion with Edris Rice-Wray, M.D. and Hector R. Acuna, M.D.]
• [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pill/peopleevents/e_puertorico.html Publication The Pill American Experience With Dr. Edris Rice-Wray]
• [https://id.lib.harvard.edu/ead/med00694/catalog Edris Rice-Wray Papers, 1937-1983 (inclusive), 1960-1970 (bulk). H MS c537. Harvard Medical Library, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, Mass.]
• [https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/2/resources/741 Edris Rice-Wray Oral History, Interviewed by Ellen Chesler and James Reed] at the Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Special Collections

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Category:1990 deaths

Category:1904 births

Category:American birth control activists

Category:Cornell University alumni

Category:American Bahá'ís

Category:People associated with Planned Parenthood

Category:20th-century Bahá'ís

Category:World Constitutional Convention call signatories