Katherine's use of oral contraception

Katherine's use of oral contraception marks a shift from thinking about sexual responsibility to taking practical steps to prevent pregnancy. After seeking information and attending a clinic appointment in New York City, she chooses the Pill and receives a prescription, instructions, and an initial two-month supply. She later tells Michael about the decision by showing him the package. The episode gives her a measure of agency over the consequences of intimacy, while also placing that agency within a story shaped by romantic expectations, family anxieties, and unequal access to reproductive choices.

Desire, Expectations, and Responsibility

The decision develops against differing ideas about sex among Katherine and Erica. Erica considers having sex before college a reasonable prospect if she is attracted to the person, and describes herself as a realist. Katherine, by contrast, says she wants sex to be special, a position Erica characterizes as romantic. Their exchange establishes that Katherine's later interest in contraception does not erase her emotional standards: wanting to avoid pregnancy and wanting intimacy to carry personal meaning are distinct concerns, and the narrative lets both remain present.

Family attitudes also form part of the background. When Katherine discusses whether her father will agree to let her go, she says her mother is willing but that her father seems frightened. Erica interprets fathers' concern as anxiety about their daughters having sex. This is Erica's explanation, not a confirmed account of Katherine's father's thinking, but it gives the decision a social context: sexual activity is subject to adult apprehension even as Katherine tries to prepare for its consequences herself.

Earlier intimacy with Michael makes that preparation concrete. The two lie together, and Katherine does not stop his advances at first; when he wants more, she tells him she wants him but is not ready. The scene establishes both attraction and a limit she states for herself. Her pursuit of contraception is not presented as consent to any particular sexual act or as a replacement for that boundary. Rather, it adds a practical form of preparation to a relationship in which readiness still has to be negotiated.

Seeking Information and Choosing the Pill

Before contacting the clinic, Katherine reads all the pamphlets she has received. The information prompts her to imagine starting a school service because she knows a girl in gym class who had not understood that intercourse could cause pregnancy, despite already having had sex. This thought connects her own search for knowledge to a wider gap in sexual education. It also shows that her concern extends beyond obtaining contraception for herself: she recognizes that inaccurate or missing information can leave other students unprepared.

The next morning, during study hall, Katherine uses a phone booth near the school office to call Planned Parenthood of New York City. She asks for information about obtaining birth control and is transferred to someone who arranges an appointment. At the clinic, she is told to come to the Margaret Sanger Clinic at 22nd Street and 2nd Avenue at three o'clock. The sequence is purposeful and specific: she moves from reading, to making an inquiry herself, to securing a place where she can receive professional guidance.

Katherine arrives at 2:45. In a group session with seven other people, including two young couples, a physician and a social worker explain birth-control methods and invite questions. She does not ask any during that discussion. The group setting nevertheless gives her a general account of available methods before she meets privately with a social worker, Linda Kolker. In that individual session, Katherine explains that she considers preventing pregnancy her responsibility. Asked about a special boyfriend, she confirms the relationship context that informs her visit.

The consultation continues with a physician, who asks whether she has a preference among birth-control devices. Katherine requests the Pill. He tells her that he sees no reason she should not use it and says she is in excellent health. The decision is therefore hers to state, while the clinic supplies medical assessment and a route to obtain the method she wants.

Prescription, Instructions, and Disclosure

After the appointment, Kolker gives Katherine a prescription and a two-month supply of pills. She also explains how to use them and makes sure Katherine understands the instructions; they discuss possible side effects and the need to call the clinic if any occur. The encounter presents contraception not simply as a choice of method but as a process involving information, medical judgment, and follow-up guidance. The account establishes the prescription and initial supply, but does not specify later refills or describe a daily routine of taking the pills.

Katherine leaves for Penn Station and catches the 5:17 train, eager to tell Michael. At home, however, her mother reports that Michael has called and has the flu. Two days later Katherine becomes ill as well, with a temperature of 104 degrees, and is confined to bed. This interruption delays the conversation she had planned; the narrative links the delay to illness rather than to any change in her decision.

When she and Michael later have a chance to meet, Katherine does not begin with an explanation. She opens her pocketbook, takes out the package, and holds it up for him. Michael recognizes that it is the Pill, and she confirms it. He asks how she obtained it, and she tells him she went to Planned Parenthood in New York. His response is accepting, and Katherine says the choice makes sense. The exchange makes her disclosure a concrete action: the package communicates what she has arranged before she has to explain the whole process, and Michael's recognition turns a private medical decision into shared knowledge within their relationship.

Agency Within a Wider Reproductive Story

The episode distinguishes preparedness from certainty. Katherine has sought a method to avoid pregnancy and received instructions, but the narrative does not claim that contraception resolves every emotional question in her relationship or removes the need for communication. Much later, when Michael returns during a period of strain between them, she cannot respond to his renewed sexual advances as she once did and asks him to wait. That later hesitation shows that practical access to birth control and emotional willingness are not interchangeable; the account of her use of the Pill does not override her ability to set a boundary.

Sybil's experience offers a contrasting reproductive situation. After giving birth, Sybil speaks of using an IUD because she does not intend to give up sex, while saying that she hopes to keep a child if she has another baby. The baby is due to leave with adoptive parents, and Sybil hopes the child will have a good life. Her circumstances are not Katherine's, but their juxtaposition broadens the story's concern from preventing pregnancy to the different decisions and conditions surrounding pregnancy, birth, and parenting.

Katherine's clinic visit is significant because it makes responsibility something she can act on rather than merely discuss. She gathers information, identifies what she wants, attends a medical consultation, receives instruction, and chooses when to tell Michael. Yet the story keeps that agency grounded in circumstances: family unease, uneven sexual knowledge among students, the need for professional care, and a relationship in which emotional readiness remains distinct from contraception. The Pill is thus both a practical means of pregnancy prevention and part of Katherine's developing ability to make and communicate decisions about her own sexual life.