Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T07:04:05.279Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Harm or Mere Inconvenience? Denying Women Emergency Contraception

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Carolyn McLeod
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper addresses the likely impact on women of being denied emergency contraception (EC) by pharmacists who conscientiously refuse to provide it. A common view—defended by Elizabeth Fenton and Loren Lomasky, among others—is that these refusals inconvenience rather than harm women so long as the women can easily get EC somewhere else nearby. I argue from a feminist perspective that the refusals harm women even when they can easily get EC somewhere else nearby.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Hypatia , Volume 25 , Issue 1: Special Issue: FEAST I: Current Work in Feminist Ethics and Social Theory , Winter 2010 , pp. 11 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Medical Association. 2001. Principles of medical ethics, http://www.ama‐assn.org/ama/pub/category/2512.html(accessed January 30, 2009).Google Scholar
Anderson, Elizabeth. 2005. So you want to live in a free society? (5): Common property, common carriers, and the case of the conscientious objecting pharmacist, Left2Right, August 2, http://left2right.typepad.com/main/2005/08/so_you_want_to_.html(accessed January 30, 2009).Google Scholar
Arras, John D. 1988. The fragile web of responsibility: AIDS and the duty to treat. Hastings Center Report 18:10–20.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baergen, R., and Owens, C. 2006. Revisiting pharmacists' refusals to dispense emergency contraception. Obstetrics and Gynecology 108 (5): 1277–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bartky, Sandra L. 1990. Femininity and domination: Studies in the phenomenology of oppression. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Benjamin, Martin. 1995. Conscience. In Encyclopedia of bioethics, Vol. I. ed. Reich, Warren T.2nd ed. New York: Macmillan, 469–72.Google Scholar
Blustein, Jeffrey. 1993. Doing what the patient orders: Maintaining integrity in the doctor–patient relationship. Bioethics 7:289–314.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Card, Robert F. 2007. Conscientious objection and emergency contraception. American Journal of Bioethics 7 (6): 8–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Childress, James. 1979. Appeals to conscience. Ethics 89 (4): 315–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, Chalmers C. 2005. In harm's way: AMA physicians and the duty to treat. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 30:65–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Croxatto, H.B., Brache, V., and Pavez, M., et al. 2004. Pituitary‐ovarian function following the standard levonorgestrel emergency contraceptive dose or a single 0.75‐mg. dose given on the days preceding ovulation. Contraception 70:442–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davidoff, Frank. 2006. Sex, politics, and morality at the FDA: Reflections on the Plan B decision. Hastings Center Report 36 (2): 20–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fairhurst, K., Ziebland, S., Wyke, S., Seaman, P., and Glasier, A. 2004. Emergency contraception: Why can't you give it away? Qualitative findings from an evaluation of advance provision of emergency contraception. Contraception 70: 25–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Feinberg, Joel. 1984. The moral limits of the criminal law. Volume 1: Harm to others. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fenton, Elizabeth, and Lomasky, Loren. 2005. Dispensing with liberty: Conscientious refusal and the “morning‐after pill.” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 30:579–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Free, C., Lee, R.M., and Ogden, J. 2002. Young women's accounts of factors influencing their use and non‐use of emergency contraception: In‐depth interview study. British Medical Journal 325 (7377): 1393–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gee, Rebekah E. 2006. Plan B, reproductive rights, and physician activism. New England Journal of Medicine 355 (1): 4–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greenberger, M.D., and Vogelstein, R. 2005. Pharmacist refusals: A threat to women's health. Science 308 (10): 1557–8.Google ScholarPubMed
Lambert, Laura. 2005. Pharmacy refusals: Women tell all, http://www.plannedparenthood.org/issues‐action/birth‐control/pharmacy‐refusals‐6510.htm(accessed January 30, 2009).Google Scholar
Laugminas, S.G. 2005. Pharmacists battling lawsuits over conscience issues. National Catholic Register, February 13–19.Google Scholar
Little, Margaret O. 1999. Abortion, intimacy, and the duty to gestate. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 2:295–312.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McInerney, Peter K. 1990. Does a fetus already have a future‐like‐ours? Journal of Philosophy 87 (5): 264–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McLeod, Carolyn. 2002. Self‐trust and reproductive autonomy. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, P. 2000. Religion, reproductive health, and access to services. Conscience 21 (2): 2–8.Google ScholarPubMed
Roberts, Dorothy. 1997. Killing the black body: Race, reproduction, and the meaning of liberty. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Saltzman, L.E., Johnson, C.H., Gilbert, B.C., and Goodwin, M.M. 2003. Physical abuse around the time of pregnancy: An examination of prevalence and risk factors in 16 states. Maternal and Child Health Journal 7 (1): 31–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schuman, Jacob. 2006. Pharmacist, heal thyself. The Reporter 38 (1).http://www.popconnect.org/Communications/Reporter/Spring2006/PharmacistHealThyself.pdf(accessed January 30, 2009).Google Scholar
Shaw, Jessica. 2006. Reality check: A close look at accessing abortion services in Canadian hospitals. Ottawa: Canadians for Choice. http://www.canadiansforchoice.ca/report_english.pdf(accessed January 30, 2009).Google Scholar
Shoveller, J., Chabot, C., Soon, J.A., and Levine, M. 2007. Identifying barriers to emergency contraception use among young women from various sociocultural groups in British Columbia, Canada. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 39 (1): 13–20.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stein, Robert. 2005. Pharmacists' rights at front of new debate. Washington Post, March 28: A1.Google Scholar
Stein, Robert. 2006. A medical crisis of conscience: Faith drives some to refuse patients medication or care. Washington Post, July 16: A1.Google Scholar
Stubblefield, Anna. 1996. Contraceptive risk‐taking and norms of chastity. Journal of Social Philosophy 27 (3): 81–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomson, Judith J. 1971. A defense of abortion. Philosophy and Public Affairs 1 (1): 47–66.Google Scholar
Thomson, Judith J. 1986. Feinberg on harm, offense, and the criminal law: A review essay. Philosophy and Public Affairs 15 (4): 381–95.Google Scholar
Vischer, Robert K. 2006. Conscience in context: Pharmacist rights and the eroding moral marketplace. Stanford Law and Policy Review 17:83–119.Google ScholarPubMed
Wicclair, Mark R. 2000. Conscientious objection in medicine. Bioethics 14:205–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wicclair, Mark R. 2006. Pharmacies, pharmacists, and conscientious objection. Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 16 (3): 225–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wu, J., Gipson, T., Chin, N., Wynn, L.L., Cleland, K., Morrison, C., and Trussell, J. 2007. Women seeking emergency contraceptive pills by using the internet. Obstetrics and Gynecology 110 (1): 44–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed