Feministing has an alarming post up about the rising number of pro-life pharmacies and what their refusal to stock birth control means for women. According to the Washington Post: The pharmacies are emerging at a time when a variety of health-care workers are refusing to perform medical procedures they find objectionable. Fertility doctors have refused to inseminate gay women. Ambulance drivers have refused to transport patients for abortions. Anesthesiologists have refused to assist in sterilizations.
The most common, widely publicized conflicts have involved pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control pills, morning-after pills and other forms of contraception. They say they believe that such methods can cause what amounts to an abortion and that the contraceptives promote promiscuity, divorce, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and other societal woes. The result has been confrontations that have left women traumatized and resulted in pharmacists being fired, fined or reprimanded.
And now they've started forming their own businesses, which don't have condoms or birth control pills, but do have Viagra.Feministing's Jessica adds that these groups are going way beyond opposing abortion:
The Pharmacists for Life International site, for example, (in addition to having an incredibly sophisticated web design, ahem) links to anti-choice nuts like Jill Stanek, who argues that abortion providers and Chinese people eat fetuses (!), and The Pill Kills campaign. These pharmacies are beyond pro-life - they're pro-lying and anti-woman. And we shouldn't allow them in our communities.
She's right.
These renegade pharmacists should certainly be free to vote their beliefs and lobby their congresspeople and use all legal, responsible means to bring about changes to the laws surrounding women's rights and drug availability, but if they're going to call themselves pharmacists they're going to have to do their job. And that means filling prescriptions for birth control pills and not presuming that they know better than patients and their doctors. If they're not willing to do their job, they should go into a different line of work.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 5)
1.
"...and down this aisle ladies, you'll find the tried and true rhythm method, or you can get an aspirin from the next aisle and hold it between your knees..."
Will being theocratically correct save the independent pharmacies?
JefFlyingV at 5:01PM on Jun 17th 2008
2. Let's help them refuse themselves right out of business.
Joanie at 5:10PM on Jun 17th 2008
3. Or you could go to the store down the street. Problem solved!
Ken Green at 5:12PM on Jun 17th 2008
4. These pro life people are the first to critize single mothers who chose to keep their babies in the face of adversity. NEWS FLASH: You're the reason woman have abortions-to avoid facing the harsh judements of the pro lifers who are supposedly doing "God's Work." I can just imagine them facing God and Him asking, "Did you really think I wanted you to treat others this way?" The worst sin is to judge others.
Susan at 5:18PM on Jun 17th 2008
5. actually, the pharmacists can do as they feel morally correct, and the pharmacy itself has to decide if it wants to employ that person. If they don't wish to employ people who won't do the job they were hired to do, they should be able to not hire or keep them. And if a pro-life pharmacy opens, then it should be free to be what it is, and to hire the type of people who will represent it. The trouble is litigation comes after the holier-than-thou's get fired or not hired. If lawsuits weren't part of the equation then "free trade" would be possible. But it should be up to the business owner, what will be sold, or what treatment will be acceptable to offer; not the employee.
abbot at 5:21PM on Jun 17th 2008
6. I agree with post number 3. It's all about choice....for everyone.
Willet at 5:24PM on Jun 17th 2008
7.
....Now all we need are for Amish people to get jobs at the department of motor vehicles, and refuse to issue licenses due to their objection to motor vehicles....
But you don't have to worry about that, the Amish don't have an agenda.
ex-christian at 5:52PM on Jun 17th 2008
8. How about this...if you don't want to provide health care, don't become a health care professional. Professional ethics dictate that doctors, pharmacists, nurses, and therapists cannot deny care to anyone who would benefit from their services. They can't deny a service based solely on the fact that they don't WANT to provide it. Patients have the right to expect uniformity between hospitals, pharmacies, etc. I want to know that when I walk into a pharmacy, or when I call an ambulance, or when I see a physician, I will receive X type of care. Period.
Katherine at 5:59PM on Jun 17th 2008
9. I agree. When I was 18 and went to my first gyno visit, my gyno prescribed the pill even though I wasn't sexually active at the time, because my hormones were out of whack which was causing painful cramps, heavy periods, missing periods for months, etc etc. The hormones in the pills helped level everything out and I have had no problems since. A doctor prescribing birth control pills is not always for just the purpose of contraception. The pharmacists are only there to fill prescriptions, not to judge their patients and especially the advice of a doctor over their personal beliefs. Seems to me these kinds of people are control freaks and just want to push their personally held beliefs. They knew going into the business that someday, somewhere they would get a prescription for birth control. If they didn't like it then they shouldn't have signed up for it.
K at 6:11PM on Jun 17th 2008
10. It's time to make birth control pills available over-the-counter. No pharmacist needed.
happyagnostic at 6:13PM on Jun 17th 2008
11. I would say to these pharmacists what I say to all fanatical pro-lifers... if you want to ban choice, in this case by denying contraception, then you should also volunteer to personally care for all the unwanted children in this country yourself.
Sandy at 6:38PM on Jun 17th 2008
12. It's easy. A pharmacist is licensed by the State. If they chose not to do their job, pull their license, and ban them from the profession. Same goes for Doctors, ambulance drivers etc who want to impose their view of the world on others.
Its like the Muslims at Indianaopolis Airport. They are taxi drivers. They want to be given the right to refuse to drive people carrying liquor. They are licensed by the State. If they want to keep that license they should serve the public, and that includes people who have a bottle of wine in their luggage. If their reglion says they cannot do it... they can change jobs.
cdnbirch at 6:57PM on Jun 17th 2008
13. If the owner of the establishment doesn't want to do something because it goes his or her beliefs, then nobody can make them do otherwise. This is still a free country. If we are going to start to tell people what they have to sell us or else!, then we might as well live in Cuba...
shiningstarxport at 7:04PM on Jun 17th 2008
14. If they dont wanna sell contraceptions, that is there choice. These women can go to another pharmacy problem solved. Those complaning need to get a life. . .especially those feminists.
Christine at 7:30PM on Jun 17th 2008
15. I guess the real question is, why become a pharmacist if you don't want to honor a prescription? I guess if you don't want to fill a prescription for high blood pressure medication or Ritalin for a hyperactive child, you don't have to either.
We are on a slippery slope here.
If you own the pharmacy, I guess you can do as you please. But I would make sure to spread the word to family and friends and the media that you refuse to honor a doctor's prescription. Big chain pharmacies are not going to give anyone a hassle. I would take my business there.
David S. at 7:47PM on Jun 17th 2008