Posted on 12/03/2005 2:17:17 PM PST by wagglebee
A Southern Illinois abortion foe, backed by her local Catholic diocese, is asking consumers to pull their prescriptions from Walgreens until four pharmacists, on unpaid leave for refusing to agree to fill orders for the morning-after contraceptive pill, are reinstated.
Ann Polka, manager for the Belleville Diocese's Project Rachel, a post-abortion healing program, is also asking regional residents to refrain from doing other shopping at the chain's stores.
"This is an unjust action," Polka told the Belleville, Illinois, News-Democrat. "They are being let go because they couldn't in good conscience dispense the drugs."
At issue is the Plan B morning-after contraceptive – not to be confused with RU486, the abortion pill used to terminate later-term pregnancies. Plan B contraceptives are essentially very high, multiple dosages of birth-control pills taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex to prevent ovulation or implantation. If ovulation is prevented, no egg is fertilized and no pregnancy occurs. But if ovulation has taken place and the egg is fertilized, the morning-after pill works to block implantation by the early embryo in the mother's womb. It is aborted, making dispensing prescriptions for the pill a matter of conscience for pro-life pharmacists.
Walgreens, in a statement following last Monday's suspensions, defended its action saying the company's policy is consistent with an Illinois state rule mandating pharmacists fill prescriptions without delay.
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich filed an emergency rule April 1 requiring pharmacies to honor all Food and Drug Administration-approved contraception prescriptions. The rule is the only one of its kind in the U.S. and became permanent on Aug. 1.
"If a woman has a prescription for contraceptives, they ought to be filling that," Blagojevich told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, adding that the pharmacists' suspensions were unfortunate but not as important as protecting women's rights.
"This (rule) is unjustly imposed on Illinois by Rod Blagojevich," Polka said. "It's puzzling to me that pharmacists do not have a discretionary power."
"[Pharmacists] certainly have the right to their personal opinions, but that cannot get in the way of a woman's right to get the care that her doctor has prescribed for her," Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said. "If it is approved by the FDA and approved by a doctor, it is not a pharmacist's place to deny access."
Ottenhoff noted the law does provide an exception – pharmacies can either sell the Plan B pill along with any other contraceptives they offer or they can refuse to sell any contraceptives at all.
"It's up to the pharmacy, how they decide to comply with the rule," she said. "In this case, Walgreens did what they felt they needed to do to comply with the law in Illinois."
Pharmacists opposed to dispensing the pill are free to apply for positions at pharmacies making the later choice – or move out of state.
John Menges, one of the four Illinois pharmacists dismissed last week for refusing to sign a Walgreens pledge to dispense the pill, may have to make that choice. Thus far, Walgreens hasn't offered him a position across the Mississippi River in neighboring Missouri where pharmacists' right to conscience is recognized, but three Illinois pharmacies have contacted him.
Menges, 39, believes the FDA erred in classifying Plan B as an oral contraceptive since it acts, in at least some cases, as an abortifacient – it prevents birth rather than pregnancy. He, along with five other Southern Illinois pharmacists, are suing Illinois to end the Blagojevich rule.
Polka has marshaled the support of her diocese for the Walgreens boycott. An announcement will go out to all parishes in the church's next monthly mailing.
"These pharmacists are very courageous," she said. "We as Catholic Christians need to stand behind this."
Why would any employer agree to reinstate any employee who fails to do their job?
This boycott, like most boycotts, is misguided.
The Catholic Diocese of Belleville in Illinois is organizing a boycott of Walgreens for firing pharmacists for refusing to dispense "morning after" pills.
The boycott is against the wrong entity. They were jsut following state law, as I understand things.
The State of IL should be the target.
Right-- people should boycott Illinois, not Walgreens.
"The State of IL should be the target."
That would be too much work. The state is run by liberals and they would have a really hard time getting the law overturned.
Instead, some geniuses want to boycott a company that has to follow a bad law, and has already offered these employees jobs in another state where they wouldn't have to follow the bad law.
Some people don't take the time to think things through.
Why? It is against the law in that state for the pharmacists to refuse. They can either (1) get the law changed, (2) move to another state that does not have that law, or, (3) go into another business. You are asking Walgreens to break the law in order to get your business. I don't believe that is EVER going to happen.
Great motive, wrong target.
The Illinois law is the proper target, along with any politician who voted for it.
After reconsidering, I agree. However, I do think that it would be proper for Walgreens to assist in a campaign to force Illinois to change it's law.
Well, I didn't mean to pile on, and I should like very much to see Walgreens help, but ultimately it has to be a grass-roots campaign of Illinoisans and National Right-to-Life organizations to get the law changed.
And was it Blagojevich who changed the law by executive order? If memory serves, and I think it does, this is his doing. He should be given a few months warning of excommunication, and then if need be, excommunicated.
The very hand of Rome is needed here, or the next step will be elimination of conscience clauses for doctors and nurses wishing to avoid entanglement in abortion that is here and the euthanasia that is coming.
The sponsors of the boycott should just dial 1-800-CINDY, or 1-800-GRETA; so we can listen to this crap for a few months.
I would like to see the Vatican follow through and excommunicate every politician who ever votes in favor of abortion or signs a law supporting abortion.
Uh, no. Not okay.
What would you do if a new law was enacted that made you violate your religious beliefs?
I agree.
As being "Pro-Life", I would simply quit my job. There is always alternate employment (for those motivated enough to look).
Don't blame Walgreens for expecting an employee to actually do their job.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.