The Predictor (The Meg Crane Story)

This is the story of Meg Crane, a 26-year-old Greenwich Village graphic artist who, with no scientific background, invents and designs the first home pregnancy test. It's also the story of Meg's journey in defense of her invention -- of a woman finding her voice and learning to stand up for herself. It is 1967 and the women's rights movement is in its infancy in the U.S. Birth control pills come to market in 1960, yet remain illegal in half the country. Pregnancy testing is only available to married women and strictly controlled by doctors and pharmaceutical labs. When Meg presents her prototype test kit to the pharmaceutical company where she works as a cosmetics packaging designer, her idea is condemned as immoral, impractical, and financially unsound. Believing her invention will give women sovereignty over their own bodies, Meg fights to move it forward. The test kit, branded "The Predictor", does not get to market in the US until 1977, ten years after Meg first presents it to the company. Although Meg's invention, like Margaret Sanger's birth control pill, is a harbinger of major social, cultural and legal changes in America, most of her friends and colleagues have no idea of her achievement. Only forty years later, when the NY Times gives credit for the invention of the home pregnancy test to the man who later designed the stick form of pregnancy testing, does Meg feel compelled to claim her place in history. It takes four years and some help from the Smithsonian before the NY Times recognizes her contribution in 2016. The story intercuts between 26-year-old Meg and 72-year-old Meg, focusing on the two most dramatic periods of her life.