Informed Consent and the Birth Control Pill

• Many people (lay and professional) believe pregnancy begins at conception.
• Any different definition of pregnancy should be clearly defined as such.  Currently in Oral Contraceptive (OC) literature this is not always the case.


• A contraceptive prevents contraception or impregnation (therefore prevents fertilization).  If it allows conception, but prevents implantation- it should no longer be called merely a contraceptive.
• Oral Contraceptives may not always prevent conception.  They may sometimes prevent implantation.
• In those circumstances where implantation is prevented, they are abortifacient (abortion causing).  The description of this mechanism of action as an Oral Contraceptive would not be completely true.


• Any information that claims to be complete, and is known by it's originator to be incomplete, is intentionally deceptive.


• Our concern is that all mechanisms of action of OCs are not clearly presented to the consumer.


• Definitions of pregnancy may also not be clearly defined.


• Therefore our concern is that informed consent is not always given.

Health Canada and Oral Contraceptives >>