The controversy over abortion has chilled contraceptive research, particularly research on methods that work after fertilization, such as vaccines and antiprogestational agents. The Agency for International Development is prohibited by law, and the National Institutes of Health are barred by policy, from funding research into any method that may be used to induce abortion or to improve abortion techniques. The Upjohn Company, once a major actor in the field of contraceptive development, has pulled out of reproductive research altogether, reportedly in part because of a boycott of its other products by antiabortion groups. Were the pill or the IUD in an early stage of research today, such opposition might well prevent them from becoming marketable or from even being developed at all.
