When patient autonomy became a closely held value in medical ethics in the 1960s and '70s, the physician’s conscience-based right to refuse to deliver a given service began to be contested.
A more just sharing of the responsibility for contraception can only be achieved through the development of male birth control methods and reconceptualizing responsibility for contraception as shared between men and women.
Asymmetry in knowledge and power between (1) physicians and patients and (2) physician educators and their students creates a climate for possible abuse in both sets of relationships.