Medical Editors Fired in Plan B Dispute
Monday, February 27, 2006; Page A07
Strong feelings about the emergency contraceptive Plan B are creating waves in Canada as well as the United States. Following a dispute at the Canadian Medical Association Journal regarding a story about Plan B, two of its editors were abruptly fired, leading to angry protests at the journal and in other medical circles.
Editor John Hoey and deputy Anne Marie Todkill were dismissed last Monday by Graham Morris, president of the holding company that publishes the journal. Graham said they were fired because the journal needed new leadership after 10 years, but journal staff and editorial board members said it was because of an article on the availability of Plan B in Canada commissioned by the journal.
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That article sought to examine the experience of Canadian women who sought Plan B after a government decision in April to make it available without a prescription. The journal sent 13 women out to buy the drug, and found that many were asked for personal information, including a sexual history, contrary to confidentiality laws.
After the Canadian Pharmacists Association learned of the upcoming article, it complained to the medical association and Morris told the editor not to publish the story. Morris has said his objection was that the journal had crossed the line between news reporting and scientific research. Editor Hoey ultimately agreed to a revised Plan B article that omitted what happened to the shoppers.
But in December, he wrote an editorial accusing the Canadian Medical Association of censoring the journal's news content in the Plan B article. That complaint was taken up by the journal's editorial board, which considered resigning en masse to protest the firing. But the group decided to stay and work to reinstate the two.
In an open letter to the medical association, the editorial board wrote: "By its actions the CMA has not only unjustly dismissed genuinely world class editors; it has compromised the public interest, its own interests, and the value of its core asset."
-- Marc Kaufman
