I write in reference to articles commemorating the 50th anniversary of the birth control pill. ("What every girl should know about birth control" and "A half century later, 'the pill' has changed American life," published May 11.)

I hardly see the need to celebrate.

"The pill," it was claimed, would "set women free." The opposite is true. It enslaved women. Women are now objectified as instruments of sexual pleasure. Is this to be celebrated? Should we also celebrate the fact this led to a 50 percent divorce rate and a generation of children born out of wedlock? The traditional family has become the exception; we have "the pill" and so-called sexual revolution to thank.

Both articles portrayed Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger as some kind of folk hero for her ideas about birth control. Yet Ms. Sanger believed birth control would filter inferior, undesirable people from society. Should she really be portrayed as a hero?

In 1968, Pope Paul VI warned that artificial contraception would lead to higher rates of divorce, breakdown of the family, reduced birth rates and more. Perhaps somebody should have listened.

I pray that in 50 years we are celebrating the demise of this human pesticide known as "the pill."