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 ...
Because abortion is now legal.
Without contraception we would have had 200 million?
In the former Soviet Union, abortions were quite common due to the fact that contraception was tough to procur.
You don't have any numbers to show. History shows that contraception came out and then abortion rose.
No. History shows that abortion was made legal and that abortions therefore became more numerous.
Following your logic, the civil rights movement can be just as responsible for the increase in abortions. After all, the civil rights movement was followed by an increase in abortion.
Sorry, but that's not necessarily how employment works. If the pharmacist has it in his contract that he doesn't have to sell such products, then thats a different issue becasue then accomodations are made as a condition of employment. What ever happened to a business owner deciding what is to be sold in his own store? And why would a pharmacist want to work for someone who provides such materials. Is the cashier at 7-11 obligated to sell the porn that's behind the counter? What about the employee at a grocery store who believes alcohol consumption, or even caffiene consumption, is immoral and against their religous beliefs? Can they refuse service to customers? What about a bartender who finds alcohol religiously or morally wrong? Does he serve only virgin drinks? All of these people know what they will be selling before they get their jobs and should have made their decisions accordingly. The patient is FREE as well to choose another Pharmacist.
The pharmacist wasn't forced to be a pharmacist and was fully aware of what the profession entailed. He could have chosen another line of work.
Because abortion is now legal.
Your reasoning is as untested as mine. I recognize that the law change had an effect, but I don't believe that just because something is made legal that people will rush to do it.
They had to have their minds changed first about the "Free and easy" sexuality to be had with no consequences. This was the result of contraceptives.
In the former Soviet Union, abortions were quite common due to the fact that contraception was tough to procur.
They were quite common due to the lack of desire to bring children into a Communist hellhole.
Following your logic, the civil rights movement can be just as responsible for the increase in abortions. After all, the civil rights movement was followed by an increase in abortion.
I understand that post hoc ergo propter hoc is a fallacy, but that doesn't mean that such things must be false. Certainly the availability of contraceptives caused a change in sexual behavior. Can you agree on that?
And sexual behavior leads to pregnancy. Which leads to abortion.
SD
Actually, I believe that the church does not make this distinction. Forcing the delivery of a child that will not be sufficiently developed to survive is not considered any different than aborting the child. I will try to find a link for this but I remember seeing this very recently.
What this article deals with, is an attempt by the state to coerce, not only individual pharmacists, but pharmacies (businesses) to fill all prescriptions for contraceptive and abortive devices.
The governor of Illinois is prepared to deny licenses to these "conscientious objector" pharmacists AND pharmacies.
--------------------------------------------------------
Ill. Pharmacies Required to Fill Prescriptions for Birth Control
By Kari Lydersen
Special to The Washington Post
Saturday, April 2, 2005; Page A02 CHICAGO, April 1 -- Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich (D) issued an emergency rule Friday that requires pharmacies to accept and fill prescriptions for contraceptives without delay, after a growing number of complaints nationwide that some pharmacists are refusing to dispense birth control pills and the "morning-after" pill.
He also established a toll-free number that residents can call to report refusals by pharmacies.
(Emphasis added by me) ------------------------------------------------------------
This is state coercion on a private business and an attempt to coerce conscience. To use you analogy, it would be more like the state saying that every video store must service the customers' desire to buy porn; either by selling the porn, or possibly by making a referral only to a conveniently-located porn store for same-day service.
Abortion is a medical procedure. When it was illegal, it would only be practiced by shady doctors. Few women were willing to take the risk. When it was made legal, an entire medical infrastructure was created to deliver quick, efficient, safe abortions.
Certainly the availability of contraceptives caused a change in sexual behavior. Can you agree on that?
Absolutely. Though, there were certain other factors at play. The women's movement, for one.
Bump
Of course, you can't really have a women's movement without women being able to remain unpregnant. So it all ties in together.
SD
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01046b.htm
As to the time, let the questioner remember that no acceleration of birth is licit unless it be done at a time, and in ways in which, according to the usual course of things, the life of the mother and the child be provided for".
hundreds huh?
lets see...over 14 years at 300 times...thats about every 17 days. thats only a little over 21 times a year. sheesh...thats still more than i get.
Regarding the Illinois thing, I'm pretty sure that pharmacies that did not stock birth control in the first place were exempt, although I would imagine they are an extremely small minority.
The Wisconsin state pharmacy board disagrees. They revoked the license of the pharmacist who refused to fill a prescription.
"The Wisconsin state pharmacy board disagrees. They revoked the license of the pharmacist who refused to fill a prescription."
Documentation? Circumstances? Urban legend? Also got into a fight with the patient and broke his nose?
If someone's moral belief prevents them from doing their jobs then they should get another one.
I wish someone would make an attempt to take this to court as there is no doubt that it will be thrown out as fast as you can say "jack robinson"
Presumably you filed "Friend of the Court" briefs supporting the Muslim in Florida whose "moral belief" was that she could take her driver's license photo in a burka.
No it does not go together. The founders of the womens' movement in the 1840s and 50s were vehmently against abortion.
No one "needs" this- even for health reasons. I have severe endometriosis and doctors have been trying to 'treat' it for years with birth control bills. These pills change your healthy body to make it unhealthy and unable to concieve a child- a side effect is that it suppresses out-of-control hormones like with endometriosis. I didn't want the unhealthy part so I chose other treatments- and likewise I didn't give money to companies that sell these abortives (birth control pills are abortive) and an industry that thrives on sexual immorality and has no standard.
By the way, I'm a single 24 year old protestant woman--before you make assumptions that I am old and ultra-conservative.
Pharmacists don't deny the drug because of sex- but because it's abortifacient. Who cares whether it's for health reasons!?!? You can't make someone be an accessory to murder.
"If these pharmacists are morally opposed to filling a perscription, as per a physician's orders, they need to find a different line of work. It is not their place to hold moral judgement over what a specific medication does."
They became pharamacists to dispense MEDICINE to heal and help people, not kill innocent unborn babies (yes, birth control pills work this way). Telling them to find a different line of work because they have moral fiber is assanine at best. People shouldn't be prevented from helping people because they refuse to harm them.
Your viewpoint is disgusting.
I've got endometriosis---severe endometriosis, typically treated with BC. I SAID NO because it's abortive, and although I'm sexually abstinent, I dind't want to put human pesticides in my body-or give money to those who make them.
I had to find an NFP only Catholic who wouldn't JUDGE ME for being abstinent or refusing birht control. Options exist. You just have to find them.
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