Posted on 01/27/2006 12:56:47 PM PST by wagglebee
ST. LOUIS, Missouri, January 27, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Target pharmacist has lost her job for refusing to dispense or refer for the abortifacient morning-after pill.
“For me, life begins with two cells,” said Heather Williams, explaining that the so-called emergency contraception pill, Plan B by Barr Pharmaceuticals, often prevents implantation of a newly formed human embryo within the uterine wall – which, of course, constitutes abortion. The same mechanism is responsible for the sometimes abortifacient effect of the regular birth-control-pill.
According to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch report, Williams has refused to dispense or refer for the abortifacient for the past five years while working as a part-time Target pharmacy employee. She argues that to refer patients to a dispensary where they can find them is equally immoral. “I just can’t be a link in the chain at all,” Williams said.
Williams, who is a mother of three, lost her job over the issue as of January 1. She filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of Missouri. She says, however, that the blame for her dismissal belongs to Planned Parenthood, not the Target store. Planned Parenthood has spearheaded efforts across the US to mandate that pharmacists co-operate in chemical abortion.
Williams and attorney Ed Martin have appeared on television to argue that pharmacists are the scapegoats in the battle over Plan B. Martin is also the attorney for four Walgreens pharmacists from across the river in St. Louis, Illinois, who lost their jobs for the same reason. The four refused to abide by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s decree mandating that pharmacists dispense the abortifacient.
Blagojevich warned Illinois pharmacists in April to dispense the abortifacient morning-after pill or face legal backlash – despite a state statute that exempts pharmacists from participating in practices contrary to their religious views.
Williams said that Target forced pharmacists state-wide to sign a “conscience clause” last fall agreeing to dispense the abortifacient or refer to another pharmacy that does. She wrote the chain a letter December 1 telling them she could not sign the clause. “We had to make sure it was in stock, and even give directions to the store,” she said. “I would be a participant.”
Williams is losing her job even though the Target store where she worked has never stocked Plan B.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Walgreens Disciplines Four Pharmacists for Refusing Abortifacient Morning-After Pill Prescriptions
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/dec/05120102.html
I'd bet if an Wal-Mart employee refused to sell guns, he'd be labeled a left-wing hero!
Did you try finding "Unfit for Command"?
This is about dispensing drugs which are designed to end a human life.
Actually, the emergency contraceptive at issue here cannot interrupt or disrupt an established pregnancy. In short, it is ineffective if a woman is pregnant. Plan B is a contraceptive, not an abortion pill. Am I to take it that you view all contraceptives as morally equivalent to abortion?
As a result, doctors must perform a procedure that they may find morally reprehensible, or lose their job. If they must complete an AB that was botched, and they refuse to do so on moral grounds, they can be sued. If they refuse to fill a prescription at the pharmacy, they can be fired. Yet Howard "Yeearghhh" Dean doesn't give a damn about these people, and never will. In the end, it's all about the money.
Perhaps while the Dims are trying to paint Republicans as evil because they merely know how to pronounce the word "Abramoff", someday we'll learn how many Rolls Royces these elected officials have been able to buy, due to donated money from lobby/left wing causes (from, unfortunately, both sides of the aisle).
Yes, legally these women have a right to have this prescription filled. That doesn't mean she needs to be a participant.
Thank you. Yours is the only reply favoring her firing that has any logic or reasoning behind it.
It's something like walking into a bookstore and asking for
a conservative author, and the clerk--with purple hair-tint
and a ring through his nose--gives you the old "stink-eye".
To paraphrase Laura I.: "I don't want to argue with you--s***-up and fetch me the book/pills."
The Brownshirts are back.
It would be nice to have a list of pharmacies that don't provide abortifacients for us to support.
Thanks for the ping..
Then how could they fire her? Only because she didn't tell them where to go? If so, that makes this even worse for Target, IMO.
Are you also against use or distribution of regular birth control pills?
Barnes and Noble in Kalifornia did that. I'm not sure which book, but it seems it was the one by the Swift Boat Vets re John limp-wrist Kerry.
This is different. Most doctors are their own boss. She isn't, she is required to do what her boss says.
If he's working for Planned Parenthood then he's probably going to be required to perform abortions, if he doesn't like it he probably shouldn't get a job with Planned Parenthood
Agreed. It's like a stripper complaining that nudity offends her.
Apparently she wouldn't sign some form on the topic that Target sent out late last year. The whole story is in the St. Louis dispatch story. Just Google "Heather Williams" and "Target".
Or open your own pharmacy. When you work for someone else, you pretty much do what they require.
What are the other reasons?
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