Posted on 04/02/2005 7:26:51 AM PST by Sthitch
ST. LOUIS — Responding to complaints about a Chicago pharmacist who refused to dispense birth control pills, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Friday issued an executive order requiring drugstores to fill prescriptions for contraceptives.
The policy, the first of its kind in the U.S., requires pharmacies that carry contraceptives to fill prescriptions without delay.
"No hassles, no lecture, just fill the prescription," Blagojevich said.
If an individual pharmacist will not provide birth control pills because of moral or religious beliefs, the drugstore must have a plan to ensure that the patient receives the pills promptly.
In most cases, that means having another pharmacist on hand to dispense the drug.
The policy does not require that all drugstores carry contraceptives; many don't, especially in Catholic hospitals.
But if the pharmacy has them, it must dispense them to anyone with a valid prescription — or risk suspension of its license, said Susan Hofer of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, which oversees pharmacies.
Because Blagojevich issued the policy as an emergency rule, it would remain in place for 150 days. During that time, Hofer said, the state will hold public hearings on a proposal to make the policy permanent.
"When you or I walk into a pharmacy with a prescription," she said, "we have to have a strong level of confidence that we're going to walk out carrying the drugs we need. If the drug is in stock, it must be dispensed. End of discussion."
But that's not the end of the discussion for a growing number of pharmacists who consider it immoral to dispense birth control pills and morning-after emergency contraceptives.
Some consider the morning-after pill a form of abortion because the hormones can block a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus. Because they view that as tantamount to murder, they may not only refuse to provide the hormones, but also to transfer the prescription to another pharmacist.
"To transfer the prescription would make me part of a bucket brigade … a party to selling something that demeans or endangers life," pharmacist Neil Noesen told the National Catholic Register this year.
Noesen was recently reprimanded by an administrative law judge in Wisconsin for refusing to fill a college student's birth control prescription in 2002. That state's Pharmacy Examining Board will meet this month to decide whether his license should be restricted.
Similar cases have cropped up in Georgia, New York, Ohio, Texas, Missouri and other states in recent years.
"We're hearing about it happening more and more frequently," said Karen Pearl, interim president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
In response, abortion rights groups are promoting legislation that would require pharmacists to fill prescriptions or promptly transfer them to someone who will. A California Assembly committee is scheduled to consider such a bill next week.
On the other side of the debate, abortion opponents have proposed bills to protect pharmacists from lawsuits and disciplinary action if they refuse to provide contraceptives.
In the mid-1970s, after abortion was legalized, most states passed laws that let doctors and nurses refuse to participate in procedures that violated their religious beliefs. But only Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi and South Dakota explicitly extend that right to pharmacists.
Legislation to give pharmacists the right to act based on their beliefs is pending in several states, including Wisconsin.
"People should not feel excluded from entering the pharmacy field because they hold a certain view on when life begins," said Francis Manion, a lawyer with the American Center for Law and Justice, a group that presses religious rights cases.
Manion acknowledged that letting pharmacists turn away prescriptions could be "horribly inconvenient" for some patients, especially those in rural areas who might not have ready access to another drugstore.
"I know if I went into a drugstore and was told the pharmacist wouldn't give me my medicine, I'd be really mad," Manion said.
"But that's the price we pay for being a society that values religious freedom."
"But shouldn't that be determined by the pharmacy not the governor? If Wal-Mart wants to carry them, but they allow their pharmacists to defer on prescribing them, shouldn't that be Wal-Mart's choice, not someone in Springfield?"
So where does it stop then? Will we have pharmacists refusing to fill all kinds of prescriptions they don't "agree" with. Doctors refusing to deliver babies to unmarried women? Shouldn't there be some government support over this?
Doctors take an oath, do pharmacists?
HAHAHAHAHAHHA ... somehow I knew that was coming! I'll be whistling that for the next hour or so!
"Doctors take an oath, do pharmacists?"
Yes pharmacists do take an oath!
wrong.
There goes that argument.
still though, if it's an independant business, I would feel they can sell what they want. you are right though, in the medical field it's a bit different.
the wife is looking at me like I've lost my mind ... at this point she may be pretty close to the truth.
I doubt that you would ever find a doctor who would take such an action. Such a doctor would realize that delivering a baby is as much a treatment for the child as for the mother, and would not likely want to see harm come to the child.
I once doubted whether a pharmacist would refuse to fill prescriptions, but here we are
If a Dr refuses to treat someone and the condition worsens or the person dies, the Dr can be sued. If a woman becomes pregnant, can she sue the pharmacist for not selling the Birth Control device?
It would be something to see a women sue a pharmacist for child support because of this. =)
I take BC and if you looked at my prescription & me you'd assume I was just some easy whore. In reality my policy is to never give men free milk, and BC is literally a lifesaver.
This Blagojevich is just pure evil isn't he?!
=)
Freedom of religion and freedom of conscience must necessarily trump both however.
(BTW, if you really think a cheeseburger with fries can do the same job as a condom, you'd best start reading the labels, eh?!)
YOu try getting a ham sandwich in a Jewish delicatessen in New York and you will be sorely disappointed. NOw if you'd like corned beef, they got that! Tastes pretty much the same, too, although I really have no idea how Jewish guys figured that out!
Blagojevich really doesn't care about that part anyway. Childbirth simply isn't on this very evil man's agenda!
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