The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7488 p149
9 February 2008

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• Clarke Inquiry (2)
• Minor ailment scheme
• EHC
• WCPPE (2)
• Dispensing
• Community pharmacy
• PSNC
• Drug addiction
• The Society (2)

Letters to the Editor

Emergency hormonal contraception (EHC)

As a Christian, I will not supply EHC

From Mr S. J. Lewis, MRPharmS

A news item last week entitled, “Complex relationship between beliefs, ethics and knowledge leads to variability in EHC supply” (PJ, 2 February 2008, p108), quotes Richard Cooper as stating: “Terminology such as ‘morning after pill’, and a perception that [emergency hormonal contraception] causes abortion, are unhelpful for a profession seeking to provide a greater public health role.”

EHC works in several ways depending on whether conception has taken place or not. If conception has taken place, EHC blocks normal processes so that the early embryo is unable to implant in the womb and therefore is expelled or aborted. Consequently, EHC may cause abortion if conception has occurred, which means the term “emergency hormonal contraception” is inappropriate and inaccurate.

I am unclear why these facts are unhelpful to us as a profession but they are the reason why, as a Christian pharmacist, I am not prepared to supply EHC, either on prescription or on request.

Simon J. Lewis
Hove, East Sussex

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