Posted on 12/06/2005 9:50:04 PM PST by Former Military Chick
WASHINGTON (BP)--Four Illinois pharmacists have found out there is a price to pay for exercising their pro-life convictions.
The Walgreen Co. placed four of its pharmacists on indefinite, unpaid leave Nov. 28, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. The four, all working at Walgreen stores in the Illinois suburbs east of St. Louis, had declined to abide by a state rule that requires pharmacists to fill prescriptions for contraceptives, including the “morning-after” pill, even if it violates their consciences.
Many people with pro-life views consider the “morning-after” pill, also known as emergency contraception, to be an abortifacient because it not only restricts ovulation in a woman but it can act after conception. The method can block implantation of a tiny embryo in the uterine wall, thereby causing an abortion, pro-lifers point out.
Illinois is the only state to have a rule requiring pharmacists to dispense the “morning-after” pill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat who issued the rule earlier this year, said after the discipline of the four Walgreen pharmacists, “If a woman has a prescription for contraceptives, they ought to be filling that,” the Post-Dispatch reported.
A Walgreen spokesman told the Post-Dispatch the pharmacists could transfer to a store in Missouri, where such a policy is not in effect.
John Menges, 39, who was removed from his position at an Edwardsville, Ill., store, said it is only a matter of time before Missouri has a rule that “takes away his religious freedoms.”
“I’m not going around the country running from this,” he told the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat.
The pharmacists are hopeful the state’s conscience clause will protect them, according to the Bellevue newspaper.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved prescription use of two brands of the “morning-after” pill, Preven and Plan B. The FDA is considering whether it will permit over-the-counter sale of Plan B without a prescription to women 16 years of age and older.
The “morning-after” pill is basically a heavier dose of birth control pills. Under the regimen, a woman takes two pills within 72 hours of sexual intercourse and another dose 12 hours later.
Yes! Yes, yes, yes. One's feelings on contraception alone shouldn't affect dispensing them, particularly over the counter methods. However, the "morning after pill" is an entirely different ball of wax.
I imagine it's not popular with most here at FR, but my husband and I use contraceptives. We live in a tiny apartment on one income plus what he earns working part time while he finishes his degree (after school expenses, his income is just about non-existant). Although we would love to have a child, now is not a great time financially and therefore we need to prevent it for a while. That's our choice as a couple, and the state should not impose restrictions on the method that we select so long as it is not harming anyone else.
That said, I wouldn't DREAM of using the morning after pill. The primary method of operation is to prevent implantation of a fertilized egg. There are bona fide reasons for a pharmacist to refuse to dispense it, just as a pharmacist can choose to not fill a prescription for a drug that would be harmful to the patient. A pharmacist isn't a robot who fills every script handed to him/her, without question. They are educated professionals who are entrusted with dispensing medications that will not cause harm to the patient.
don't be ridiculous.
you can't force doctors to perform abortions- so how can you force someone to sell drugs for self-imposed abortions....?
talk about a dnagerous road---forcing people to PARTICIPATE in abortions is a MUCH MORE DANGEROUS ROAD!
The article says the reason they were "put on leave" is that STATE law requires them to fill these scrips. It's not a private-business decision, it's the law.
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