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  • 4 - The Pill, Women’s Agency and Doctor–Patient Relationships in the 1960s and 1970s

  • Laura Kelly, University of Strathclyde
  • Book:
    Contraception and Modern Ireland
    Published online:
    16 February 2023
    Print publication:
    23 February 2023, pp 129-150
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  • Summary

    This chapter builds on important recent accounts of the contraceptive pill in other predominantly Catholic countries with similar restrictions in place. It focuses on three key themes: firstly, contemporary attitudes to the contraceptive pill in Ireland in the 1960s and 1970s; the experiences of Irish women who chose to take the contraceptive pill; and, the role of medical authority surrounding the pill. The chapter shows that through negotiating access to the contraceptive pill, Irish women were also negotiating both their marriage dynamics and relationships with the medical profession. Ultimately, the loophole regarding the prescription of the contraceptive pill as a cycle regulator in the period before 1979 placed Irish general practitioners in a position of significant power over women’s access to contraception.