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 ...
All these questions could be asked and answered at the time the doctor prescribes the medication. When a person needs drugs that are prescribed by a licensed doctor I'd guess they could care less if they receive it from a nameless government functionary or a machine. They just want what is legally their right to have without another man's judgement attached.
If I own a gun store and someone comes in to buy a gun, it's really none of my business what he/she wants to use it for. But if someone comes in to buy a gun and tells me that they are going out to kill their spouse, children, elected leaders, etc., then I'm going to tell that person to take a f#%&ing walk.
I don't know why this is such a big deal. A person who runs a private company can accept or refuse a client for any damn reason he wants -- or for no damn reason at all.
The doctors are prescribing the medicine. Why would you want to cut them out? The disconnect comes when their patients cannot receive the prescribed medicine. That's the part that can be replaced.
Must every pharmacist in existence make himself a party to this suicide in order to satisfy you? Is there no allowance for conscience?
Would you sell a gun to a suicidal man? Even if it's legal?
SD
The pharmacist is not a useless tool in the process of obtaining medication, BTW. One key role of a pharmacist is to make sure a patient doesn't have any potential side effects to a medication due to allergies, other concurrent medications, etc.
Exactly.
Who cares about the persons name and who says they would be unqualified? They'd more than likely be more qualified than the current pharmacists because they could specialize in the products sold by their particular company. That way the company could screen out any person who does not agree to dispense their products. I see this as a win-win situation. The patients get their prescribed medicine without having to play morality bingo, not knowing which pharmacist on which shift at which store has a problem with which prescription. While the pharmacists could chose to work only for the companies whose drugs do not violate their moral integrity.
This whole thing is nonsense... the number of pharmacies refusing birth control is inately miniscule.... face it... when's the last time you walked into one that didn't have condoms?
I hardly doubt you are finding a rash of women who can't get their pills... but of course the media's going to make it seem like that.
Right, but that doesn't seem to be the case. And it's a different question entirely.
Which, IMO, would be your right. If you did sell contraception, it would also be your right to fire a pharmacist employee who refused to fill such prescriptions.
No government involvement required, in either case.
"Should a pharmacist's moral views trump a woman's reproductive rights?"
How about:
"Should a woman's reproductive choices trump a pharmacist's moral views."
By the way, this issue is far less about "the pill" and far more about an impending battle over "the morning after pill."
There's a tremendous difference between birth control and post conception abortion by pill. The abortion crowd is already putting the spin on this to have legislation passed that makes it illegal for a pharmacist to refuse to sell "the morning after pill."
How many pharmacist know a persons mental state when they fill a prescription? I've never been asked by a pharmacist if I were suicidal or even if I was having a bad day when I've had narcotic prescriptions filled. All they wanted was my insurance and deductible.
That's between you and your employer. It's none of the government's business.
But Planned Barrenhood would like the government to do the equivalent of forcing businesses to sell liquor, cigaretts, and nudie magazines. It's not really about "choice". It's about power.
Should a woman's "reproductive rights," which exist not in the Constitution but only in the fevered mind of judicial tyrants, trump a health care worker's God-given right not to be forced to participate in the destruction of innocent human life?
AMA VOTES AGAINST LETTING WOMEN KNOW "THE PILL" IS ABORTIFACIENT
Postfertilization (early abortion) Effect of Hormonal Emergency Contraception
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All of which could be asked over the phone when the prescription arrives in the mail. Most drug stores have this service now.
Also, the idea that anyone has a right to the labor of another is tantamount to an endorsement of slavery.
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