Teenager finding out she's pregnant in 1966

[shanrina]

Setting: Baltimore, Maryland, US, 1966

Comments

[reapermum]

Pregnancy tests in those days were to inject a toad with a urine sample and wait and see if it laid eggs as a result of the hormones in the urine. So it couldn't be done very early in pregnancy (had to wait until hormone levels would be high enough) and you had to wait for the toad. That's why there were no home tests.

[green_grrl]

An earlier version of the test used rabbits--but the lab would have to autopsy the rabbit to see the size of its ovaries in response to the urine. "The rabbit test" became the popular phrase for a pregnancy test and was still used by the general public in the '60s-'70s even though toads and frogs were used by then in the nonlethal test. Although the rabbit was always killed to do the autopsy, the phrase "the rabbit died" was used by the general public to mean "the pregnancy test was positive," and your characters (girl, boyfriend, friends--not the clinic staff) would plausibly use it.

[tsubaki_ny]

I grew up hearing that term, but never knew there was a real rabbit involved.

[profbutters]

There was actually a Billy Crystal film called "Rabbit Test."

[archangelbeth]

This was also part of the plot of a M.A.S.H. episode -- the head nurse (Hoolihan?) is concerned she may be pregnant (which will cost her job), but the only rabbits available for testing are Radar's pets. (I don't recall how they resolved it. Perhaps they spayed the rabbit instead of killing it?)

[etiennewestwind]

Yep. The ep ends with Radar responding to her thanks along the line "I know you'd do the same for her".

[tsubaki_ny]

Yes! Yes! I remember being in the single-digit ages in the 70s and hearing the term on sitcoms. I think "Three's Company" at one point also had a minor character say it, but I don't think she was telling the truth. I knew it had to do with babies, but I thought it was a euphamism. I thought it was maybe a rabbit avatar-type thing, but in pixelated Atari-game form, or some chemicals changing colors or something.

[shanrina]

Oh, I like that phrase. Thanks--I think that'll probably make its way into the story even though her test wouldn't involve a rabbit.

[cmar_wingnut]

I remember hearing that phrase and being horrified that a rabbit would be killed so someone could find out she's pregnant. I was quite relieved to learn the rabbit test was no longer done.

[shanrina]

Thanks.