"The Pill" completely changed Western Civ and beyond.
It liberated women from being "baby machines" and set
them free in many other ways.

Turns out their sex drives weren't THAT different from
men ... which maybe suggests why so much ancient law
and custom (STILL seriously in the Islamiverse and a
BIT less in the EU/US Puritaniverse) was directed
straight against women.

Alas there have been many "news" stories over the
past few years which seek to demonize The Pill.
All sorts of horrible health/psych effects are
claimed ... but usually with VERY marginal evidence.
However, if properly hyped, even Crap seems TRUE
and creates panic.

There are certain "Handmaid"-friendly male factions,
usually fundy-xian, which PROMOTE the hype. There IS
also a 'demographic crisis' in many 1st-world civs
which may promote even govts to go along with the hype.
South Korea is going to be the first nation/culture to
be un-made by demographics, Japan not far behind,
the USA/EU just a bit behind that. No babies = no
country/future ... sorry. Do the math .......

Science BADLY needs to create (ok, probably already
has) a good solid non-hormonal contraceptive. But,
let's get real, there's a lot more $$$ in the current
daily/monthly hormonals. Why sell one or two pills
per year when you can sell 30 a month ??? Some kind
of 'antibody'/receptor-blocker that keeps sperm from
finding eggs ... that'd do it. How about a one year,
two year, five year, "pill" that doesn't trash yer
hormone balance ??? Hand 'em out in middle-schools !

In any case, if women again become "baby machines"
their social/fiscal status and relevance and ops WILL
go back to the 1950s for sure. Then, probably, Life
Under The Burkha given the new global players .......

Some call the doom-saying news stories mis/dis-info,
and that's almost surely true. However there may not
be much of an Evil Plan involved here - just the
economics of "news".