Should Conscientious Objection Be Legal?

Today, the availability of birth control is taken for granted. There was a time, not long passed, during which the subject was illegal (“Margaret Sanger,” 2013, p.1). That did not stop the resilient leader of the birth control movement. Margaret Sanger was a nurse and women’s activist. While working as a nurse, Sanger treated many women who had suffered from unsafe abortions or tried to self-induce abortion (p.1). Seeing this devastation and noting that it was mainly low income women suffering from these problems, she was inspired to dedicate her life to educating women on family planning—even though the discussion of which was highly illegal at the time (p.1). She was often in trouble with

To a greater extent doctors and well-known figures are presenting that contraceptives aren’t as innocent as they seem. In this informative display given at the 4th National Forum on the Theology on the Body (also titled "Love and Responsibility Conference"), Doctor Janet Smith illustrates the possibly severe and physical side effects connected to contraceptives. She also talks about the impact that these chemicals have on how men and women relate to each other, what they uncover as attractive in each other, and how they choose a spouse. Come along and learn more about the linkage between the negative effects of contraceptives to societies viewpoints are frequently disregarded in regards to contraceptives.

“I WILL NOT PERMIT considerations of age, disease or disability, creed, ethnic origin, gender, nationality, political affiliation, race, sexual orientation, social standing or any other factor to intervene between my duty and my patient;” (WMA 1). The previous statement is an excerpt from the Declaration of Geneva, or the Physician’s Oath. The Physician’s Oath was adopted in 1948 by the Word Medical Association at Geneva. This oath is taken by most physicians as a guideline for their duties as an expert in any medical field. However, there is a clause that undermines this known as The Conscience Clause. The Conscience Clause is a clause that made its place in American history around 1973 as the decision in the case Roe V. Wade. The Conscience clause enables someone to refuse to do a specific thing involving their line-of-work if they believe it infringes on their religious beliefs. The conscience clause was enacted after the Supreme Court Case Roe v. Wade in 1973. This clause was put into place in medical, and pharmaceutical fields as a means of protecting someone’s ethical and moral beliefs. The conscience clause should be abolished because it can inflict serious harm to those who need a live-saving treatment or medication. The clause can also be used as a means of discrimination and give some people a reason to just not do their jobs.

Women in today’s society have never known a time when contraceptive options were not available to them. As a general statement, acquiring some sort of contraceptives whether it is the pill, patch, condom, emergency contraception, or another of the many types of birth control is not difficult with the many options available to women today. However, backtrack to the early 1900’s and the story was completely different. In 1916, Margaret Sanger made contraceptive history by opening the first birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York. The fight for birth control began. It was not until years later in 1960 that the birth control pill was approved by the Food and Drug Administration and since then many other varieties of birth control have made their way into the market (Kim & Wasik, 2011). Today, thanks to those like Margaret Sanger who fought for contraceptives, women and couples who wish to avoid pregnancy have more choices than ever before. (Egarter et al, 2013; Perry, 2015).

Furthermore, if we apply rule utilitarianism to the situation, wherein we accept a rule that states that doctors should disregard religious, cultural views and family wishes, this rule would never be accepted because it does not produce the most good for the most people. (Collier & Haliburton, 5-10)

I think this particular ethical dilemma encompasses three of the APhA Code of Ethics principles. The principles involved are as follows: “pharmacist promotes the good of every patient in a caring, compassionate, and confidential manner”, second “pharmacist acts with honesty and

Throughout research and surveys professionals have supported the idea of making birth control available to all women. In “Planned Parenthood: Ideas for the 1980s” Carl W. Tyler proposes his four ideas for Planned Parenthood. His four ideas are reproductive choice, reproduction free of risk, the quality of parenting, and freedom from harm. Carl is a physician specializing in gynecology and in obstetrics for 15 years. His idea of “All individuals of reproductive age should be free to determine the number and timing of their pregnancies if they choose to have any.” Carl’s argument helps me justify my argument of making birth control available to any woman of any age. The next source I came across is by John Thomas, John is a senior editor at

Women’s rights have been under attack for more than one hundred years. One of the biggest battles that still remains today is the battle of pro-choice and pro-life. The topic of abortion seems to be one that will go on forever. Women face the risk that at some point the pro-life movement could make the choice of having an abortion impossible, regardless of the reasoning behind it. Making the Emergency Birth Control pill, or the “morning after pill” more easily accessible to women could help eliminate the need for abortions.

Health care has drastically changed throughout the years, especially for women. Areas that have experienced trouble have been Planned Parenthood, and whether or not birth control should be included in insurance and/or provided by healthcare agencies or employers. Planned Parenthood has been getting attacked because of people who do not believe abortion is a morally conscious decision. Planned Parenthood helps women who are unable to afford the care they need while pregnant, teaches safe sex, and provides adequate health care to mean and women in general. Being able to obtain and use birth control is essential for women’s health and ability to plan and control their own lives. The main issue is that multiple insurance companies, politicians, and even employers are trying to prevent women from reciving this healthcare, and also trying to avoid having to provide it for them. Some insurance companies try to cheat the system find loop holes in laws requiring employers to provide necessary healthcare to their employees. They are mainly trying to cut off women’s ability to have birth control funded. These are just two out of several major issues in women’s healthcare that will be discussed throughout this informative essay.

For Nelson, the rights of conscience to pharmacists to protect their refusal on all levels; to provide, to refer, and to education, is a necessity. This right is needed to prevent the extinction of ‘religious health care professionals. Nelson states, “If society is prepared to legalize controversial health care products and procedures, it must also work to protect those who do not agree with them”. This statement stands at the core of Nelson’s stance. If the patents have protective measures in choice on their end, then professionals should also.

Each section delves deeper into his primary topic of emergency contraception, which unlike many other authors, focuses on specific parts of conscientious objection instead of the broad use of it in the medical field, which allows for it to be more detailed. This, however, is also a downfall because he doesn’t cover all of the parts that make up conscientious objection and therefore possibly leaves out vital information. While leaving some out, he does indeed cover a multitude of information and has listed 20 resources that he used evenly throughout his paragraphs in order to support his views. He references articles in order to further explain the topics and set the stage for his arguments in order to make it more understandable to his readers and to further justify the research behind his opinions. He also shows insight to both sides of the argument before proceeding to give his opinions and therefore makes this an acceptable academic source to use for a research

One approach to eliminating the need for abortion and satisfy both pro-choice and pro-life advocates, is to introduce more extensive sex education courses and make contraceptives more widely available. Contraception and sex education is such widely used in Western Europe that their rates of unwanted pregnancies, teenage pregnancies, and abortion are much lower

Saying that you'll respect and protect all personal and health information. They have to have all respect for the customers. “Act bans pharmacists from attempting to harass or humiliate any patients attempting to fill or get a prescription.” (Quinn, 2007) It also bans them from refusing to return it to the patient, or otherwise detaching them from having the prescription filled. The pharmacists are not doctors and they do not qualify to decide which drugs people can and can't take only because of their religious beliefs. In my opinion pharmacists should just not put their religious beliefs into play while at work, they should just do what they are supposed to do and that it giving prescriptions to patients and let them go on their way. Different people believe different things and it will just cause bigger problems that what the person is already causing. We should just all respect what people believe and let it be. In the end you will probably never even have to see this person again in your lifetime so just give them their medications and let them go on their

We live in a time in which most of the population is ignorant towards laws and regulations due either their educational level or their nationality. In a country that is meant to provide freedom and liberty to their citizens, it seems that there are more regulations than rights. However most of these laws are necessary to maintain peace and tranquility among communities. Physicians shouldn’t be restricted from executing procedures that they feel are beneficial to their patient if the patient understands what exactly the doctor is trying to achieve by doing this procedure. But not every case is the same, and some laws should be in place to keep the patient safe and secure. For example, the sanitary laws that are in place in hospitals are crucial in order to keep the establishment clean and bacteria free.

The overpopulation problem also stems from a lack of contraceptive use due to cost, availability, and current political changes. Cecile Richards’ article “Protection and Expanding Access to Birth Control” discusses Americas’ need for defending the current access to birth control, but also the need for increasing available birth control. Despite the fact, there are many programs that help reduce the cost of contraceptives, one’s preferred method may still be expensive (Richards, 2016, p. 1). There are many forms of birth control available today and many do not require a daily regimen. Choosing a method based on cost could decrease the likely hood of effectiveness. The Affordable Care Act required health insurance to provide, at no expense, “preventive care services” (Richards, 2016, p. 1). This program offers many Americans, with insurance, birth control for the first time. Meanwhile, policies that are in review by the current government leadership are threatening to cut funding and/or the complete removal of these programs that offer affordable access (Richards, 2016, p. 2). At this current time, these programs remain in the United States.