Pharmacists' Rights at Front Of New Debate

Washington Post ^ | 3/28/05 | Rob Stein

[Crackingham]

Some pharmacists across the country are refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control and morning-after pills, saying that dispensing the medications violates their personal moral or religious beliefs.

The trend has opened a new front in the nation's battle over reproductive rights, sparking an intense debate over the competing rights of pharmacists to refuse to participate in something they consider repugnant and a woman's right to get medications her doctor has prescribed. It has also triggered pitched political battles in statehouses across the nation as politicians seek to pass laws either to protect pharmacists from being penalized -- or force them to carry out their duties.

"This is a very big issue that's just beginning to surface," said Steven H. Aden of the Christian Legal Society's Center for Law and Religious Freedom in Annandale, which defends pharmacists. "More and more pharmacists are becoming aware of their right to conscientiously refuse to pass objectionable medications across the counter. We are on the very front edge of a wave that's going to break not too far down the line."

An increasing number of clashes are occurring in drugstores across the country. Pharmacists often risk dismissal or other disciplinary action to stand up for their beliefs, while shaken teenage girls and women desperately call their doctors, frequently late at night, after being turned away by sometimes-lecturing men and women in white coats.

"There are pharmacists who will only give birth control pills to a woman if she's married. There are pharmacists who mistakenly believe contraception is a form of abortion and refuse to prescribe it to anyone," said Adam Sonfield of the Alan Guttmacher Institute, which tracks reproductive issues. "There are even cases of pharmacists holding prescriptions hostage, where they won't even transfer it to another pharmacy when time is of the essence."

[narses]

Good post Crackingham, thank you!

[Sonny M]

There are pharmacists who mistakenly believe contraception is a form of abortion and refuse to prescribe it to anyone,"

Yea, the guys who studied and know this field are wrong, and somehow you know more then them.

Gee, I wonder who to believe here.

[Holly_P]

There are pharmacists who mistakenly believe contraception is a form of abortion

I seriously doubt that.

What's more likely is that there are pharmacists who for their own moral reasons don't want to dispense them. If they own their own business it's their right to sell what they please and to not sell whatever they don't want to sell. If the consumer doesn't like it she can go somewhere else.

We are sliding rapidly down the slippery slope when legislators try to tell people what they must sell.

[freetexan]

I'm a pharmacist. I've never ordered the "morning after pill" from my wholesaler, so, therefore, have never been able to dispense it.

[cpdiii]

The Washington Post is up to it's normal BRAVO SIERRA. What they reported is true. What they failed to report this is an extremely small fraction of pharmacists. A far smaller fraction than the percentage of NY Times and Washington Post reporters that are unethical in their trade.

As a pharmacists I have refused to fill Rxs and physicians orders only when to do so would cause harm to the patient. I have only refused to fill them after contacting the prescribing physician and informing him of the problem. In the vast majority of the cases the physician had made an error and it was quickly corrected and the patient did not even know it. That is part of our job in retail and in hospital pharmacy. In extremely rare occasions a physician would refuse to change an Rx or a order in a hospital that would have harmed a patient. In these very very rare occasions I would not fill the Rx or in the case of hospital refuse to finish and fill the order.

A retail pharmacists that will not fill a legitimate order that will not cause a patient harm needs to GET ANOTHER JOB and also have the State Board take a very close look at his fitness to work in the practice of pharmacy.

PS
I do not believe in abortion to be used strictly as a convenience. There are rare reasons for abortion but it does exist. Late term abortion is murder.

[redgolum]

FYI ping.

[NutCrackerBoy]

What they failed to report this is an extremely small fraction of pharmacists.

Heh. Like when some outlets were reporting anti-Semitic fallout from The Passion and it turned out to be one dorky minister in Denver putting up a message on the church billboard that he hoped would be a grabber for his flock - he was too stupid to understand how shocking the sign would be.

[SteveMcKing]

I think if it were me, I would do my job... but I'd give the lady a strange look and hope she doesn't come back to my store.

Use poor customer service for social change.

[hipaatwo]

Are you an independant pharmacist or do you work for a chain. I'm a pharmacy tech (now unemployed)and I worked for a big chain. We gave BC pills out like candy and always had the morning after pill in stock. I've never seen any of the pharmacists I worked with bat an eyelash dispensing them.

[hipaatwo]

I agree with everything you said. The thing I hated the most was having to call doctors and change medications because the insurance companies refused to pay for the medication ordered without a prior auth.

[goldstategop]

Liberals can't resist spreading the Culture Of Death. Its bad enough there are abortionists. And completely understandable pharmacists don't want to help make self-destructive behavior easier.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[goldstategop]

Exactly. Its the free market. The Left wants to coerce medical professionals to fulfill an ideological agenda that has nothing to do with the health of patients. If Planned Parenthood thinks that stuff is so great, they can hire people to dispense it in their own clinics.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)