Nor was it just the pill. With a supportive government and a network of clinics, Puerto Rico became a laboratory for all sorts of experimental contraceptives: diaphragms, spermicidal jellies, spirals, loops, intrauterine devices, hormone shots, and an “aerosol vaginal foam” known as “Emko” distributed to tens of thousands of women. Searle, Youngs Rubber, Johnson & Johnson, Hoffman-La Roche, Eaton Labs, Lanteen Medical Laboratories, and Durex all sponsored research there in the forties and fifties.
