Posted on 08/08/2008 4:35:52 PM PDT by AnalogReigns
Kay Pharmacy in Grand Rapids, Mich., looks like any other pharmacy. But ... some things are not for sale: condoms and other forms of birth control. Owner Mike Koelzer sent a letter to his customers in 2002, advising them that he would no longer be filling prescriptions for contraceptives. "I was and am willing to lose the business in order to not be a part of something I don't agree with. ...While the number of pharmacies that refuse to sell contraceptives remains relatively small... Brian Bundy is one of those pharmacists. That's why he was fired from a pharmacy in Flint, Mich., he said. "This country was founded on religious beliefs and the freedom to have those beliefs," Bundy said." Therefore, they should carry over to our jobs."
Megan Kelly, a married mother ... strongly disagrees. She said she was deeply disturbed when her pharmacist refused to fill her prescription for monthly birth control pills ..."For someone to interfere with that or make me feel like what my doctor is saying is not right, is wrong," Kelly said. "And that was my biggest issue -- that her morals were better than mine, or her world trumped my world. That was really uncomfortable." In response, Megan filed a complaint with the state of Illinois, which helped to change the law. The state now requires pharmacies to fill all prescriptions. California and New Jersey followed suit, enacting similar laws. But in most states, pharmacies have the right to refuse to sell any merchandise whatsoever.(heaven forbid!) ... "That's my right. So women certainly have rights in this country, and I'm not out there trying to take anything away from them. I'm just using my God given right and the freedom of the United States to sell what I want in my own pharmacy."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
My 2 comments there:
This is really frightening. Since when does the government determine what is a legitimate religious belief or not? OF COURSE a pharmacy, or any other business has an ABSOLUTE RIGHT to refuse to sell what the owner's conscience finds objectionable, IT'S HIS or HER BUSINESS!!! ANYTHING ELSE IS ANTI-RELIGIOUS TYRANNY!
------------------------------------- (several posters said, 'well I'm sure those hypocrits sell viagra!'):
The comparison to Viagra is laughable. Viagra can help restore a normal function, it doesn't prevent it. Besides, who is anyone but the business owner to judge his conscience? It's his business, and he can do with it, or sell, or not, whatever legal things he wants. Other posters are clearly anti-religious bigots.Thank God for the 1st Amendment!
Please ping your Pro-Life, moral absolutes and Catholic cauci.
I didn’t see a poll.
If you’re the business owner, you can sell or not sell whatever you want. If you choose not to sell a certain category of products for religious reasons, this is an opportunity for your competitors to provide said services and goods.
And since there are probably mail-order pharmacies, brick and mortar pharmacies shouldn’t be forced to provide services and goods based on the lack of alternatives.
However, if you’re just an employee and you disagree with your employer’s legitimate business transactions based on religious beliefs, it is time to talk with your employer about your personal beliefs and maybe find a more understanding employer.
What does Islam or Judaism say about insulin?
“Type 1 diabetic here. So, if I get A Muslim or an Orthodox Jew as a pharmacist [I am a reform Jew], they have the right to tell me what type of insulin I am allowed to use according to their religion? Who is the physician?”
They have a right to sell what they want. You have a right to take your business elsewhere. It’s pretty simple really.
The bottom line here is that a handful of black-robed lawyers practiced the tyranny they've perfected and took a very personal, moral decision out of the hands of the people and decided what they thought what was best. The Supreme Court has done more to polarize this nation than any other "non-political" mob organization.
Come to think of it, that's happening in California right now.
OH MY GOD!!
Why, this is just terrible -- TERRIBLE!
What's next?
Restaurants could refuse to sell food fried in transfats!!
Hospital gift shops could refuse to sell cigars or cigarettes!!
The sky is falling -- FALLING, I tell you!!
Birth control hormones are frequently prescribed for a number of conditions besides prevention of pregnancy. Birth control hormones can alleviate the (extreme) pain of endometriosis, for example.
It’s hard enough dealing with this pain without calling around and driving 30 extra miles to get a prescription filled.
True. And sometimes BCPs are used to normalize the cycle in order to restore fertility - in polycystic ovarian syndrome, for example (although normalizing blood sugar may actually work better.)
Still, my sympathies are with the pharmacist. I am a soon to graduate nurse, who would love to go on to nurse-midwifery - but I think finding employment would be almost impossible since I am not willing to prescribe potentially abortifacient contraception. Most American women spend most of their fertile years trying not to get pregnant.
The populations who don’t think that way are limited and I’d be an outsider - the Amish, and the Haredi Jews, maybe some Muslim immigrants - I wish I knew of a big Catholic pocket like that.
I grew up right down the street from Kay Drugs. Mike’s father, Jim, owned the pharmacy when I lived there. He was a really good guy. They went to our church. Kay’s used to deliver medicine free of charge, for moms who had sick kids and couldn’t get out to pick up the prescription.
We actually know personally one of the top docs in the U.S. studying PCOS. She says that all the Pill does is mask the symptoms of PCOS and doesn't really do anything to treat the underlying cause.
Like you said, the adrenal issue is the underlying issue. Get that under control, and not only does the period regularize but the other issues that PCOS can cause--weight problems, hormonal problems. Women who have had problems for years and just had the Pill thrown at them come to her and actually are diagnosed properly and are able to then manage their condition properly.
I personally think the medical establishment's wholesale prescribing of the Pill for any kind of menstrual irregularity these last few decades has set back proper treatment for thousands of women. Docs had (and in some cases still have) this attitude..."Ah, just take the pill and straighten out your period".
I ain't no moral theologian, but I believe (someone help me out on this) the principle of double effect applies here.
People who take the Pill for grave reasons other than birth control...where the contraceptive aspect of the medication is not willed but just happens to be a side effect of the treatment, may well not incur any sin. A Catholic pharmacist, I believe, would be able to dispense that kind of prescription in good conscience.
Thoughts, fellow Catholics?
sorry, forgot to ping you to #15
I have read of the church permitting women to take BCPs in the sixties because they had the right to a predictable cycle for NFP, or the rhythm method as it often was then. But now NFP is better understood and more reliable even for women with irregular cycles.
My thought is that you would still abstain when conception was possible with a breakthrough ovulation, because the hormones would prevent implantation - but I have never read any studies on when exactly breakthrough ovulation occurs, except that it is more likely with a skipped or late dose. Planning in advance for a slip-up is not doable.
And I have not been able to find reliable or consistent studies on what fraction of time artificial contraception actually has an abortifacient effect. I suppose it is very much a matter of individual variation.
So Tyson can rearrange employee schedules to make muslims happy, but force the pharmacist into mortal sin if he is a Catholic!
Sorry, if I was a Catholic and this guy, I would move out of state.
And may God bless them for refusing to give people the means to kill babies!
A Latin Mass community would love to have someone like you! Do some research online, good luck!
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