Posted on 05/03/2005 5:33:17 AM PDT by wallcrawlr
Rebecca Polzin walked into a drugstore in Glencoe, Minn., last month to fill a prescription for birth control. A routine request. Or so she thought.
Minutes later, Polzin left furious and empty-handed. She said the pharmacist on duty refused to help her. "She kept repeating the same line: 'I won't fill it for moral reasons,' " Polzin said.
Earlier this year, Adriane Gilbert called a pharmacy in Richfield to ask if her birth-control prescription was ready. She said the person who answered told her to go elsewhere because he was opposed to contraception. "I was shocked," Gilbert said. "I had no idea what to do."
The two women have become part of an emotional debate emerging across the country: Should a pharmacist's moral views trump a woman's reproductive rights?
No one knows how many pharmacists in Minnesota or nationwide are declining to fill contraceptive prescriptions. But both sides in the debate say they are hearing more reports of such incidents -- and they predict that conflicts at drugstore counters are bound to increase.
"Five years ago, we didn't have evidence of this, and we would have been dumbfounded to see it," said Sarah Stoesz, president of Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. "We're not dumbfounded now. We're very concerned about what's happening."
But M. Casey Mattox of the Center for Law and Religious Freedom said it is far more disturbing to see pharmacists under fire for their religious beliefs than it is to have women inconvenienced by taking their prescription to another drugstore. He also said that laws have long shielded doctors opposed to abortion from having to take part in the procedure.
"The principle here is precisely the same," Mattox said.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
One thing the article doesn't state is what form of contraception is being sought, which makes me think perhaps it is the "Plan B" morning after pill or RU 486, not the pill most folks think of as apprpriate for contraception and other regulating effects. I am not for any of them, but given the recent up tick in stories about pharmacists refusing to fill contraception prescriptions, I think they must be sweetening the pot with some of these early abortion pills.
"Another extension of this principle - the official Jehovah's Witness teaching is that blood transfusion is against their religion. How would you feel about a hospital runner who was a Jehovah's Witness refusing to take a unit of blood to the ER when your family member was bleeding?"
Then get another "runner".
Actually, most of the time, using the pill prevents ovulation, which prevents the fertilization of the egg. In some cases, ovulation is not prevented, and a fertilized egg cannot attach to the lining of the uterus because of the effects of the pill. I haven't read any studies that actually quantifies what percentage of the time this happens but most physicians I know (even staunchly pro-life) feel that it is not common for a woman, who is taking the pill correctly, to ovulate. I am not trying to dispute your opinion. Only trying to add information. Personally, I think a pharmacist should not be forced to fill a prescription they do not morally agree with. However, the pharmacist should not make any moral judgement on the patient and should merely say that they will have to go elsewhere to get their prescription filled.
all these comments about "it's not the pharmacists place to make the call"
what is the point in having a pharmacists in the first place then? just have the doctor's or a machine dole out the drugs.
i'm on the fence on this one. if there is a place for pharmacists in today's society then he should be allowed to have a conscience and people are free to choose another - just as they are with doctors. but maybe there is no place for a pharmacist in today's society.
You're comparing apples to dog crap.
How is birth control a moral issue? The Catholic church has even rethought things on this issue. While they still do not approve of a man-made contraceptive, they teach how to figure it out by the woman's cycle.
They have been teaching this since at least 1999.
sorry for the double post.
I think this is a made up controversy in order to be able to force ANY person to submit to the will of the bith control people. If you can be forced to issue a perscription then the natural extension is to be forced to TAKE the perscription.
Yeah...we would end up having only pro-euthanasia physicians too....
Perhaps someone more familiar with ob-gyn's in this thread can answer this question. To be an ob-gyn don't you need learn how to perform an abortion in medical school?
Giving drugs to reduce pain or to cure a disease most likely don't go against their morals.
As I said before we would end up with only pro-euthanasia doctors. And those sort of things.
And plus, let's say they change job. They can find the same issues all around, because these liberals are forcing these issues to be all around.
A teacher has to teach whether he/she likes it or not, that homosexuality is normal and correct. In Spain right now there are people working for the government that refuse to marry homosexuals (they are also in trouble).
It's all around, I'm telling you. And we all have the right (and the responsibility) to fight back and stand for our morals.
What do you think?, that we leave our believings in a closet when we go to work?. WRONG.
And why do the liberals have more rights than the others?.
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
There would be no delay at all. I have worked in hospitals for years.
I am not entirely sure, but it is my understanding that it results from the prevention of ovulation. The pill was designed to trick a woman's body into believing she is pregnant, therefore preventing pregnancy. (Once a woman is pregnant, she cannot get pregnant again until delivering the baby) I believe it is actually the body which prevents ovulation and the ability for a fertilized egg to implant as a response to its belief that the woman is actually pregnant.
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