A Doctor's Story

Dr Toni Turnbull is one of a very small but growing group of doctors who no longer prescribe the Pill to patients as a means of contraception. "It was a very hard decision to make," she says. "I had been prescribing the Pill for many years, both as a doctor with Family Planning and later as a GP in an all-woman medical practice. In those days I used to think it was preferable to prescribe the Pill for teenagers rather than watch them become pregnant and abort their babies.

"I would very carefully explain to each girl the nature of the Pill and how she must always observe certain conditions - taking it the same time each day, and using other back-up contraception if she had a stomach upset or took antibiotics or other medications which prevent the Pill being effectively absorbed. But even though the theoretical failure rate of the Pill is very low - around one per cent - I kept finding these girls coming back to me, pregnant. Their actual Pill failure rate was more like 20 per cent. I have since heard that teenage girls on the Pill are more likely to become pregnant than those not on the Pill. The Pill gives teenagers, who may not be very careful about sticking to rules, a false confidence that they can sleep around with no consequences.

"Then a couple of years ago I read the latest medical literature of how the Pill works. I found that the modern version of the Pill, and the 'mini-Pill' in particular, does not always prevent ovulation of conception. In some cycles it appears to work by changing the lining of the womb, making it reject any fertilised egg. I came to the conclusion that prescribing the Pill for 'contraception', I was inadvertently causing a few tiny human pre-embryos to be aborted at a very early stage of pregnancy. I felt that I could not in good conscience go on doing that.

"I was very apprehensive about what would happen when I announced my decision to my patients and the other women doctors in my medical practice. Would I be asked to leave the practice? Would my women patients go to someone else?" But when the time came it was an answer to prayer. My doctor colleagues do not at this stage share my convictions, but when I explained my reasons and the medical risks linked with the Pill, they were happy for me to stop when there is no other available treatment and after I have explained the risks to allow the patient to make an informed decision.

"My patients have been wonderful. A few women decided to go to another doctor when I explained why I could not give them a prescription for the Pill as contraception, but most have stayed with me. A number are now successfully using the Billings Method of Natural Family Planning which has been found by World Health Organisation study to have a success rate, when followed correctly, of 97 per cent."