Edris Roushan Rice-Wray (January 21, 1904 in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States – February 19, 1990 in San Andres Cholula, Puebla, Mexico), was a pioneer in medical research who helped to prove the worth of the oral contraceptive pill. Her work on the birth control injection pill is especially notable as medical research was influential in the creation of the birth control pill. Rice-Way headed a large scale, clinical trial of the first birth control pill in the late 1950s in Puerto Rico. Education Rice-Wray attended Vassar College Degree where she specialized in public health. She also attended Cornell University where she was a member of the Alpha Phi sorority. She received the award of sesquicentennial from "knowledge, wisdom and courage of service"' at the University of Michigan in 1967. Medical experience Rice-Wray worked as a doctor at Northwestern University, and had a long career working for the advancement of public health. She was a faculty member of the Puerto Rico Medical School and medical director of the Puerto Rico Family Planning Association. It was there that she headed the first large scale clinical trials working for over 17 years until the UN (United Nations) called her to work in Mexico. In 1959 she founded Mexico's first family planning clinic in Mexico City. Clinical trials in Puerto Rico and work on the birth control pill In the early 1950s, Rice-Wray's work was focused on studying the effectiveness of the pill. In order to prove the safety of the pill, researchers and activists including John Rock, Margaret Sanger and Katherine McCormick felt human trials had to be conducted. During this time Rice-Wray was working for the Puerto Rican Health Service. Puerto Rico was selected as the location for these trials in 1955 in part because there was an existing network of birth control clinics serving low-income women on the island and liberalized laws existed regarding distributing information about family planning. In 1937, a law had been passed in Puerto Rico that made it legal for married couples to receive advice about contraception. Since accessing the pill was legal, trials began there in 1956. In April 1956, Rice-Wray had been working with the Family Planning Association of Puerto Rico and joined this project. Some of the women who participated in the study experienced "the pill" (Enovid). In 1956, she starting to distribute these pills. Rice-Wray noticed early on that there