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A woman was refused the "morning-after pill" by a supermarket's duty pharmacist because it was against his religious beliefs. Ruth Johnson, 33, who has two children, including a month-old baby, had not been using her usual method of contraception with her fiancée. She went to the Tesco dispensary in Hewitts Circus, Cleethorpes, Lincs, and asked an as assistant for the pill Levanelle. Miss Johnson was told it could only be dispensed by the locum pharmacist who was called to speak with her. She said: "He came out from behind a screen and told me that he would not be allowing...

The Henry County Sheriff’s Office is looking for a man who attempted to rob Harder’s Pharmacy in Bassett on Saturday morning. A white male, with his face partially covered, entered the store on Fairystone Park Highway at about 10 a.m. and demanded that the pharmacist give him all the OxyContin and pain pills in the store, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office. The pharmacist pulled a handgun and the would-be robber ran out of the store and got into the passenger seat of a vehicle parked across the street, authorities said. The driver then pulled out and...

The story is on top and the poll is on the bottom

Poll Shows US Public Support for Pharmacist's Conscience Clause July 19, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Most American adults would favor a "conscience clause" allowing pharmacists to avoid dispensing drugs if the use of those drugs violates their religious or ethical beliefs. A survey by Baraga Interactive found that 65% of respondents supported the right of a pharmacist to decline a prescription order for moral reasons. The survey of 1,249 adults confirmed a Medscape study in 2005 in which a similar proporation of US respondents-- 69% --supported pharmacists' rights of conscience. Pharmacists who object to the use of drugs such as the...

I just received a fund raising letter from Planned Parenthood today, don't ask me why. They want me to declare that: "I will not stand silently as pharmacists are allowed to refuse to fill birth control prescriptions!" It further asks me to sign "Letters of Objection" to Target, Winn-Dixie, and Safeway urging them to clarify their policy. If Planned Parenthood has its way, pharmacists will be forced to sell abortificients and other drugs regardless of their personal or religious beliefs. Also, pharmacy chains will be forced to sell these drugs, like it or not. This is a heads up. As...

CHICAGO — An Illinois pharmacist says he's being pressured by the state to sell a certain kind of oral contraceptive despite his objection to it for moral reasons. A new rule in Illinois — the first of its kind in the United States — tells pharmacists that if they're in the business of selling contraceptives, they must fill all contraceptive prescriptions, including those for so-called "morning-after" birth-control pills.

MIAMI -- A Florida appeals court has ruled for the first time that pharmacists can be held liable for failing to warn about risks associated with use of drugs repeatedly or in harmful combinations, even if they are filling a doctor's prescriptions. The 4th District Court of Appeal, reversing a state circuit court's ruling, decided this week that Robert Powers can pursue claims of negligence against two pharmacies — Your Druggist and The Medicine Shoppe — that filled his wife Gail's prescriptions for neck and back pain. She died of an overdose. The negligence claims against the pharmacies were dismissed...

Pharmacists should not have to choose between their religion and their profession, Republican lawmakers argued Tuesday as they supported a bill to protect pharmacists who refuse to fill birth control prescriptions. But a stream of critics, from doctors to abortion rights advocates, told a Senate subcommittee the bill would deny women access to several forms of contraception recommended by their doctors. State law does not address whether pharmacists who have religious or moral objections must fill prescriptions for birth control or emergency contraception. The state Pharmacy Examining Board says pharmacists may decline to fill such orders, but last month disciplined...

Lawmakers in several states are considering "conscience clause" legislation that would permit pharmacists not to fill prescriptions for medications that violate their religious beliefs. Meanwhile, four different states are considering laws that would make sure pharmacists dispense all medications for all prescriptions they receive, regardless of the pharmacist's morals. Does requiring a pharmacist to dispense medication she finds morally objectionable violate her First Amendment right to free exercise of religion? RESOURCES “Pharmacists’ rights at front of new debate: Because of beliefs, some refuse to fill birth control prescriptions” The Washington Post (DC) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5490-2005Mar27.html “Are pharmacists right to choose?” CBS News...

Most Missouri pharmacists are bypassing the conscience debate by simply not stocking the controversial abortifacient morning-after pill according to a survey of pharmacies conducted by NARAL (National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League) Pro-Choice Missouri. NARAL found that, of 928 pharmacies surveyed statewide, less than a third – 29 percent – carried the Plan B prescription abortifacient, marketed as “emergency contraception.” Abortion zealots and media alike are decrying the fact that in some rural regions, such as Shannon County and Barry County, not a single pharmacy will allow their employees to cooperate in the destruction of an unborn child. Missouri...

Pharmacists who "just say no" when asked to fill prescriptions that violate their personal ethics are targeted by proposed state legislation that would mandate all prescriptions be filled. Some local druggists are not happy about the bill, authored by Sen. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, which would be the first in the nation to require filling emergency contraception prescriptions, even if the pharmacist feels it violates his or her personal morals. The owner of Napa's Family Drug on Old Sonoma Road, Thomas Gracia, has mixed feelings. "I think people should be able to get the prescriptions that they need," he said. "However,...

MILWAUKEE (AP) A mother of six claims a pharmacist refused to fill her prescription for an emergency contraceptive and berated her as a baby-killer, leaving her so traumatized she didn't seek out another pharmacist and ended up having an abortion.``The pharmacist crossed the line,'' said Tricia Knight, the attorney for the woman. ``It's one thing to conscientiously object. But you cannot intend to inflict emotional harm on a woman when she is making a very important and often very emotional decision in her life.''The state Department of Regulation and Licensing, which regulates pharmacists and other professionals, opened an investigation into...

Springfield, IL (LifeNews.com) -- Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich now faces a lawsuit over his executive order requiring pharmacists in the state to fill all legal prescriptions for any drugs -- including birth control or morning after pills that some pharmacists believe cause abortions. The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a pro-life law firm, filed suit in state court on behalf of two pharmacists who say dispensing such drugs violates their moral beliefs. They contend they should not be required to participate in the abortions the drugs may cause or to contribute to a customer's sexual activity. The ACLJ...

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...

Boortz is upset with the idea of pharmacists having a conscience about whether an unborn child should be murdered or not. He took a few calls on it, which is very unusual. Normally, only he is allowed to snipe his views that abortion is ok. I only heard the last call. The idiot compared abortion with what kind of drinks a bartender can serve. Since the caller agreed with him, Boortz seemed to like the call. I like a lot of things about Boortz, but I just have to vent on this today. He has his show. We have this...

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"/> June 27, 2004 As Doctors Write Prescriptions, Drug Company Writes a CheckBy GARDINER HARRIS he check for $10,000 arrived in the mail unsolicited. The doctor who received it from the drug maker Schering-Plough said it was made out to him personally in exchange for an attached "consulting" agreement that required nothing other than his commitment to prescribe the company's medicines. Two other physicians said in separate interviews that they, too, received checks unbidden from Schering-Plough, one of the world's biggest drug companies. "I threw mine away," said the first doctor, who spoke on...

Pharmacist faces complaint over failure to dispense birth control (Published Tuesday, March 16, 2004 09:10:04 AM CST) Associated Press MADISON, Wis. -- The state Department of Regulation and Licensing has filed a complaint against a pharmacist who refused to fill a woman's birth control prescription because of his religious beliefs. The complaint against Neil Noesen was filed with the Wisconsin Examining Board over an incident that happened in the summer of 2002. It said Noesen, 30, was working as a fill-in pharmacist at the K-Mart Pharmacy in Menomonie and had told the managing pharmacist he wouldn't fill prescriptions for...

Outside View: FBI Behind the Anthrax Curve Posted March 15, 2004 By Lawrence Sellin On Feb. 23, the Washington Times reported the FBI official in charge of the probe into the 2001 anthrax mailings said the investigation still has top priority among the bureau's unsolved cases but acknowledged the anthrax sender may never be caught. "Despite our very, very, very best efforts, we still might not be able to bring it home," said Assistant Director Michael A. Mason, who heads the FBI's Washington field office investigating the case. This is in stark contrast to the Nov. 17, 2001 comments of...

Experts debate theory that hijacker was exposed By Steve Fainaru and Ceci Connolly THE WASHINGTON POST March 29 — In January, outside of formal channels, an FBI official asked biodefense experts at Johns Hopkins University to examine a curious lead in the federal government’s investigation into last fall’s anthrax attacks.THE EXPERTS were to evaluate the diagnosis of a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., emergency room physician who had treated one of the Sept. 11 hijackers last June. The physician, Christos Tsonas, initially thought the man had a minor infection, but after the wave of bioterrorist attacks he told the FBI that, in...

<p>SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. — A pharmacist shot in the leg during a robbery yesterday turned the gun on his attacker, shooting him twice, police said. Ronald Huel Cole, 61, of Shelbyville entered Renegar's Drugstore at about 2:30 p.m. and demanded a shot of the painkiller Demerol, said Police Chief Austin Swing. Cole had a .38-caliber pistol in his hand and about 75 rounds of ammunition, police said.</p>

Levelland ex-resident continues recovery from gunshot wounds Caswell plans to share his story with Lubbock churches in June BY JOHN REYNOLDS AVALANCHE-JOURNAL LEVELLAND — Don Caswell continues to recover from the damage caused by a religious fanatic's bullets but he has begun to share his terrifying story with others across the state, his mother, Mary Caswell, said Monday. The 49-year-old pharmacist, who was raised in Levelland, was gunned down Dec. 30 in the Baptist hospital in Jibla, Yemen, where he worked. Three friends and colleagues, Kathleen A. Gariety of Wauwatosa, Wis., Martha C. Myers of Montgomery, Ala., and William E....