BREAKING: Judge halts state's morning-after pill rules (drug stores CAN opt out)

The Associated Press (Via The News Tribune of Tacoma WA) ^ | 11/8/07

[Non-Sequitur]

Great ruling, although there is a legion of Freepers who believe Pharmacists are ethically obligated to assist in murder.

No really, I think a pharmacy should be free to decided what to sell and what not. But I also believe that if a pharmacy owner decides to sell the pill then any pharmacist working for him should either sell it or find another job.

[proudofthesouth]

Thank you God!

[Sandy]

It seems improbable to me that Thompson would consider picking and choosing what drugs you sell is a more important right than not being killed for the supposed lifestyle convenience of your mother. If federalism precludes the latter from being consideration as a national matter, certainly it does the former.

You're confused. States aren't mandating abortions. If or when state *government* starts coercing abortions, then your comment would make some sense.

[pas]

And if the druggist exercises his right to not want to do business with you, then go find a druggist who DOES want to do business with you. But don't go crying to big government to drop the hammer on the first druggist - - that's what Democrats do.

Bingo. Whether you are for or against abortion shouldn't even matter in this case. It is about individual rights of private ownership being able to sell what they want. If the market demands the product, someone will sell it.

[pas]

You are mixing 2 entirely different things. In the first case the pharmacist does not want to sell the product to anyone.

Your example is that they should be able to sell something but not to certain people. These are not the same issues.

[agrace]

Right - there’s a difference. The owner should be allowed to determine what he legally sells in his business. And that goes both ways - no one should be able to force him to sell something he finds morally unconscionable, and no one should be able to force him to hire employees who WON’T sell his stuff.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Isn’t “Plan B” in the criminal world usually the one that says, rather than try to make a clean escape, you kill all the witnesses?

[Snoopers-868th]

You--- forgive me --- create the impression that you think the pharmacist is an automaton, and the doctor is God.

This concept might not be a bad thing. Let the doctor dispense reproductive drugs if they want to prescribe them. Same for fertility drugs. The doctors can then suffer or not via his business/ethical decisions.

[Mrs. Don-o]

"What if a young pharmacist just out of med school decides he doesn’t want to give life saving drugs to people over 45 because he wants to get his social security?"

1) The example is ludicrous, and shows a lack of good arguments

2) If it were so, the customer should go to Pharmacy B, and never go to Pharmacy A again.

3) And for good measure, boycott Pharmacy A into bankruptcy.

It's a free country.

[Mrs. Don-o]

"...the pharmacist is an automaton, and the doctor is God"
This concept might not be a bad thing. Let the doctor dispense reproductive drugs if they want to prescribe them. Same for fertility drugs. The doctors can then suffer or not via his business/ethical decisions.

See mine at #69. Everybody is entitled to make ethical decisions according to the ethics of their own profession. The doctor can refuse to participate in abortion. Ditto the pharmacist. The customer can select professionals that have no ethics other than self-advantage (matching her own.) There. Everybody's happy.

BTW, the ethics of government--- according to America's founding document, anmyway ---- involves the protection of the self-evident and inalienable right to life. "To secure these rights governments are instituted among men." Thus a return to ethical behavior should eliminate the option of killing our --- to use a Constitutional word ---- "posterity".

[2harddrive]

It is NOT “tantamount” to abortion....it IS abortion!

[MortMan]

I believe the actual sentiment being remarked upon is when an employee of a pharmacy refuses to provide prescriptions that the business owner (whether local joe or conglomerate mel) has declared will be vended. The employee sued, and lost. The owner was the defendant, not the plaintiff, IIRC.

In cases where the business owner was the plaintiff, I don’t believe I have seen such sentiment expressed here. (And if I did, I may have simply chosen to repress the memory ;-P)

[Marine_Uncle]

Perhaps the ruling will have some significant effects, as pharmicist with a little moral value step up to the plate.

[WalterSkinner]

[romanesq]

We should try to keep politics out of our dialog here on the facts of the matter.
You are correct and most people who understand law also understand that the whole practical point of doing away with the poor Roe vs. Wade decision as a legal matter is to put it back in the jurisdiction of the 50 states.

Thompson’s position is the only teneable one. There will not be a federal law to ban abortion. We can work toward something along those lines but that’s not the tactical reality.

[TNPatriot]

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,
shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Amendment 13, Section I, Constitution of the United States of America

[AliVeritas]

ping

[edsheppa]

"You would have to change 20 to 25 votes in the Senate," says Osteen....

That is a reasonable position, one I agree with even, and, if that'd been the reason Thompson gave, I wouldn't have blinked an eye. But it's not and it's his logic I was talking about. He gave two reasons, one of them being that he thinks federalism is more important than the right to life.

[edsheppa]

Since when does a state get to violate constitutional rights?

Which provision guarantees a druggist the right to pick and choose which drugs to sell?

[edsheppa]

States aren't mandating abortions.

I don't see how that's relevent to my application of Thompson's federealism position.