Let us pause, for a moment, to remember that one of the great activists of the 20th century died on February 27th, of lung cancer, leaving behind a legacy of critical challenges to the medical and pharmaceutical industries. Though many people may not know her work--because she was blacklisted from so many newspapers and magazines for her crusading muckraking---all of us owe enormous gratitude for her relentless pursuit of the truth.

I have suggested elsewhere that the women's health movement was arguably the greatest accomplishment of the modern women's movement. If I am right, then Barbara Seaman was also one of the most important activists and journalists who challenged the over-medicalization of women's lives.

Fiercely skeptical, Barbara Seaman early warned women about the dangers of the birth control pill in her controversial book "The Doctor's Case Against the Pill" in 1969. As a result of her pioneering work and the hearings that followed in the wake of its publication, strengthened warnings appeared on birth control packages.

She never stopped.

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