New arena for birth-control battle

Star Tribune ^ | May 3, 2005 | Rene Sanchez

[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.

[FreepinforTerri]

This isn't about sex- it's about that these drugs are ABORTIVE. Check your Physician's Desk Reference!

[Bushforlife]

"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."

Your position is so fundamentally in opposition to the principles of freedom and liberty, as well as the principle of freedom from religious oppression, that I hardly know where to begin. You must actually feel that only pro-abortion people are eligible to be pharmacists and physicians.

The provision of the baby killing "morning after pill" is a tiny part of the practice of medicine and pharmacy. Your position is that a Pharmacist should, in order to avoid losing his job, with it's income and ability to care for his family, be compelled to dispense a drug that in his belief system kills babies. INCREDIBLE! We have absolutely no common ground, and to further discuss the issue with you is pointless. I find it actually mind boggling that Freepers are actually arguing that people lose their jobs if they refuse to cooperate in killing babies. This is definitely an example of someone blindly sticking to a "principle" [right of the employer, perhaps] in all defiance of what is good and right. It is a choice of blind consistency over common sense. THINK, THINK; we have a good man who is at risk of losing his livelihood over his good and right decision to refuse to cooperate in killing a baby! I am actually so disgusted with you people that I will no longer post on this subject, and will delete all reply posts and mail from you [unread]. I have no desire to hear any more from people who advocate such self serving, principle sacrificing, blind obedience to authority pitiful opinions such as yours. may God have Mercy on you, and help you.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Seems reasonable to me that a pharmacy that wants to take a conservative approach (Hippocratic Oath, Judeo-Christian ethic and all that) should be allowed to do so, and probably the owner ought to advertise that , so as to attract both the kind of employee who agrees with that, and the kind of customer who agrees with that. I'd certainly patronize such a pharmacy, in preference to one with a moral code that was offensive to mine.

More on this later, huh?

[FreepinforTerri]

I am opposed to murdering preborn babies with birth control pills, abortion, anything else. I'm also a social worker. Should I choose a different line of work?

Saying people shold leave their profession because they're not murdering bastards makes me sick. Since you don't have a pharmacy degree, you should be GLAD that these people have moral convictions.

[FreepinforTerri]

There is a difference between murdering an unborn child with birth control pills and selling beer. How dare you compare the two? You obviously have no moral convictions so I certainly hope I never have to do business with you in any capacity.

[FreepinforTerri]

Hormonal birth control kills unborn babies. Check your freaking physician's desk reference!

[FreepinforTerri]

I have endometriosis. I need non-abortive therapy. You can take pills that won't kill your baby.

[FreepinforTerri]

Not true- the ovulation supressing hormones caused deadly side-effects in trials, so they upped the non-implantation facets. It mainly works to prevent implantation. That's the truth. And if only 3-5% of babies die, how was it your decision to sacrifice them to the God of conveinent sex when you want it.

[FreepinforTerri]

Don't compare a drug that KILLS to a blood transfusion that SAVES.

Hormonal birth control kills unborn babies. Check your freaking physician's desk reference!

[Quick1]

No one "needs" this- even for health reasons.

There is nothing else that will regulate my fiance's cycles as well as birth control. If she doesn't have regular cycles, she has unbearable pain that can only be treated with morphine, or other extremely strong pain killers. She NEEDS it.

Also, it's not a human pesticide, it's a pill that contains chemicals that regulate women's hormones.

[FreepinforTerri]

3-5 people that are dead for no reason that making your sex life more spontaneous? That doesn't seem evil to you?

[FreepinforTerri]

Praise God! Someone knows the truth!

[Quick1]

Endo is one of twenty different medical reasons for a doctor to prescribe the pill. Not all of them have alternative treatments.

[FreepinforTerri]

Condoms also don't cause early abortions by their nature. They prevent sperm from reaching the egg.

[FreepinforTerri]

Opposing the killing of innocent people makes me a fanatic? Then HELL YEAH, I'm fanatical.

[FreepinforTerri]

I oppose abortive birth control for married couples...Mind you I said ABORTIVE. Contraceptive drugs are abortive.

[FreepinforTerri]

I'm less opposed to sex outside of marriage than I am to killing people like abortives do. I prefer a woman screw around and not kill her baby than a married couple using an abortive.

[pa mom]

I don't know. Lots of people using contraceptives are married and would raise the child if they got pregnant. We all know families, post Roe, with oops kids.
Even many of the unmarrieds would choose to keep the child or adopt it.

You are assuming every failure directly results in abortions. Not true.

[FreepinforTerri]

Birth control is often abortive anyway and increases abortion. Women that think they won't get pregnant because they're on birth control are more likely to conceive because they have more sex. Birth control increases abortion rates. 88% of abortions were preformed on women using contraceptives.

You are wrong.

[FreepinforTerri]

Praise God. Soothing Dave knows the truth!