AMA Journal of Ethics^®

“Contraception Options” considers the general social and cultural expectation and norm that women’s bodies should be the sites of contraception.

Many devices in current use were marketed before manufacturers were required to demonstrate safety and effectiveness.

A history of device oversight by the US Food and Drug Administration traces regulatory changes in response to injuries caused by Dalkon Shield intrauterine devices.

Black women living with HIV contend with injuries of injustice that influence their reproductive lives.

Sterilization requires physicians’ surgical skills. Forced sterilization requires many clinicians’ complicity.

Clinicians in Catholic health care institutions cannot prescribe contraceptives for pregnancy prevention under a false diagnosis without committing fraud and contravening doctrine. Referrals are one option the authors consider for navigating patient requests for contraception.

Crisis pregnancy centers violate ethical principles by providing misleading information and causing delays and inequities in access to abortion.

A guardian’s request to sterilize a woman with intellectual disabilities is not ethically justifiable unless the woman assents and it is to her benefit.

Restrictions on employer-based health insurance coverage of medical services or treatments, whether motivated by religious prohibitions, political objections, or concerns about cost, degrade quality of care and undermine the patient-clinician relationship.