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 5 of 5)
61. Ok, for those of you opposed to the birth control pill do you realize it's not just to prevent pregnancies? I am a devout Christian but I take the pill becuase of endometriosis. So whats your answer to that? Do you think it's an ailment sent by God for me to suffer? Do you think it's right I practically bleed to death every month? Do you think it's right for women like to me to have their lives controlled by pain? I dont take the pill to prevent pregnancy, I take it so I can live a normal life (or as normal as I can). Believe it or not I am as opposed to abortian as you can get, I just dont want to be in the ER for a week once a month. Shy of a hysterectomy, the pill is the only thing that works for me, and believe me I have tried everything from surgery to lupron shots to herbs, and all of which I have done multiple times. Think of your daughters, wives, mothers, if they had this problem would you stand idly by and watch them suffer if you knew a pill a day could take away all their pain?
CaseyKaye at 5:19PM on Jun 18th 2008
62. I agree with Harvey in that if someone chooses to be a pharmacist but does not want to fill prescriptions for birth control, or any other med, for personal or religious reasons, then they should only seek employmeny with business that share those ideals. However, if they accept employment at a business that does not have a policy to deny prescriptions based on this reasoning, they need to fullfill their responsibilities as an employee of that business or lose their job..
The choice here should be the pharmacist's choice to work for a particular business or not, once they have accepted a position, they need to perform their duties fully or lose their job - period. I personally don't believe anyone should be denied having a legal and valid prescription filled, but if there are those out there that oppose dispensing certain meds, then they should by all means open their own business that reflects those ideals and expect to get business only from like-minded clientele. The business should dictate what its policies are - not the employees.
thinkin at 6:19PM on Jun 18th 2008
63. Ada, I had a great day. I drove my thrice blessed auto (plastic jesus on the dashboard, fish on the trunk, and cross tail lights) to the christian gas station. I filled up with christian gas ($5.50/gal none of that opec crude for me), then I drove down to the christian pharmacy. My wife was pestered by demons, so I bought 2 dozen leeches (delivered by a minister), got to bleed the wife to get rid of her headaches. Then I drove to the christian bookstore, bought a new bible, wore the other one out. Next I drove downtown picked a street corner out, delivered doom and gloom prophesies to all and sundry. A lot of fun, many people told me I was number one with hand gestures. After 4 hours went back home, the food was on the table and my barefoot pregnant wife was eagerly awaiting the leeches. All in all a very blessed day.
JefFlyingV at 1:19AM on Jun 19th 2008
64. Just because you want what you want when you want it does not translate into a requirement for anyone else to provide it to you. Shop at like-minded pharmacists' establishments and get a life.
May your service providers, and you, have few offspring, as few as you prefer. Join http://vhemt.org/ if you like. Problem solved in only one generation.
Ridge Runner at 10:40PM on Jun 20th 2008
65. Ada, I guess you missed the part where this is still American and private businesses can decide to sell what they want. Any customer who might be offended by a pharmacy's lack of anything has the right not to frequent this business.
It's call freedom. You know, that God-given thing that is denied to every unborn baby who is aborted.
Another thing: It's interesting that you can't just debate the merits of Jill Stanek's arguments without name-calling. No, you have to resort to calling her an "anti-choice nut.
If her ideas are so unworthy of merit, then why can't you argue against them without the ad hominem attacks? Does this harsh emotionalism stem from the fact that there really is no good defense for playing God with human life?
Heath Griner at 10:22PM on Jun 21st 2008
66. Why do they have to shove their beliefs down the throats of women? It should be up to the WOMEN whether she should get the morning after pill, or whatnot, NOT the damn pharmacist. They need to realize that it is a FREE COUNTRY and that they need to mind their own flippin' business. Leave the choice to the woman. And do your what your job is supposed to entail. And quit being so egotistical and bossy, and a know it all.
Rosydyn at 12:26AM on Jun 23rd 2008