Taking liberties with women: abortion, sterilization, and contraception

This paper analyzes four areas in which reproductive freedom is being denied to women. The first area involves the use of sterilization without adequate counseling as to the risk of reversibility of the method or when it is made a precondition for performing an abortion. The second concerns the sterilization technique chosen, especially in developing countries, and the failure of international population agencies to note the higher complication rates of certain procedures. The third involves the inadequate information provided to women about the side-effects of the controversial injectable contraceptive, Depo-Provera. The fourth area concerns the unethical marketing of the Dalkon Shield device. It is concluded that physicians have a responsibility to avoid allowing authoritarian attitudes or racial, class, or sex prejudices to influence their treatment of women.