Politics Emergency Contraception Emergency: Where’s Governor Gregoire?
An estimated 70 people testified this morning at a Board of Pharmacy hearing about pharmacists’ responsibilities to fill (or not fill) prescriptions.
About 65 of those 70 people—including state Sen. Pat Thibaudeau (D-43), and representatives from Lifelong AIDS Alliance, the League of Women Voters, the Washington Human Rights Commission, and Dr. Gordon Perkin (formerly of the Gates Foundation)—testified against allowing pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions based on moral grounds. (The 7-member pharmacy board is considering rules that may allow individual pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions based on moral objections.)
A crew from Bellingham showed up too (the hearing was south of Olympia in Tumwater) and handed off a petition signed by 1,000 people against Pharmacist “Refusals.”
A major theme for this morning’s speakers—mostly just regular citizens not affiliated with any organization—was that refusal clauses would hurt rape victims by preventing them from getting emergency contraception.
One major disappointment to women’s rights advocates, however, was this: No one from Governor Gregoire’s office was at the hearing. Activists who oppose refusal clauses for pharmacists feel that Gregoire is not using her office to frame this issue and pressure the Board of Pharmacy to do the right thing. To that end, over 70 groups—including NARAL Pro-Choice Washington, Northwest Women’s Law Center, Washington State Labor Council, the Governor’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, Sid’s Professional Pharmacy in Pullman, WA., and the Yakima YWCA—delivered a petition to the governor after the hearing today stating:
We, the following undersigned organizations, urge you to do everything in your power to ensure that the Board does not adopt a rule that interferes with a patient’s ability to obtain the medications that they need. We strongly believe that while a pharmacist’s religious beliefs and personal values should be respected, it is unacceptable for pharmacists to impose their moral or ethical beliefs on the patients they serve.Your help is needed to ensure that patients in Washington can access the drugs that they need, and that prescriptions are filled at the site where they are requested.
I’ve posted the whole petition to Gregoire and a complete list of those who signed the petition below.
We, the following undersigned organizations, urge you to do everything in your power to ensure that the Board does not adopt a rule that interferes with a patient's ability to obtain the medications that they need. We strongly believe that while a pharmacist's religious beliefs and personal values should be respected, it is unacceptable for pharmacists to impose their moral or ethical beliefs on the patients they serve.
Your help is needed to ensure that patients in Washington can access the drugs that they need, and that prescriptions are filled at the site where they are requested. Referring men and women to other pharmacies is not a satisfactory substitute -- many Washingtonians live in rural areas or small towns where there is no other pharmacy nearby. Men and women should not be sent out of the drugstore simply because the pharmacist does not wish to serve them.
We are a diverse group of organizations who work across the state to protect and promote the needs of women, men, youth, patients, minorities, rural areas and faith communities. This issue is of utmost importance to all of us, and the policy that is decided by the Pharmacy Board will affect all of us.
A pharmacist's foremost professional responsibility is to provide pharmaceutical care for his or her patients. While pharmacists have a fundamental right to their own religious and moral beliefs, those beliefs should not interfere with a patient's ability to obtain the health care that s/he needs.
Please do not adopt a policy that will make it more difficult for us, and for the individuals that we serve, to obtain the health care that patients need.
American Academy of Pediatrics, Washington Chapter
American Association of University Women
Aradia Women's Health Center
Aurora Medical Services
Blue Mountain Heart to Heart HIV/AIDS Organization
Cedar River Clinics-Tacoma, Renton, Yakima
Clergy Advisory Board of Planned Parenthood of Central Washington
CounterCrisis Northwest
Cowlitz Family Health Center
Ellensburg Bi-Mart
Equal Rights Washington
Family Planning Association of Chelan-Douglas Co.
Family Planning of Clallam County
Governor's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS
Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Washington
Interfaith Community Health Center, Bellingham WA
King County Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Lambda Legal
Law Students for Choice at the University of Washington
League of Women Voters of Washington
Lifelong AIDS Alliance
May Arkwright Hutton Democratic Women's Alliance/Agnes Kehoe Chapter, Spokane, WA
Medical Students for Choice at the University of Washington
Mother Baby Center, Bellingham WA
Mount Baker Planned Parenthood
NARAL Pro-Choice Washington
National Council of Jewish Women, Seattle Section
Northwest Health Law Advocates
Northwest Women's Law Center
Odyssey Youth Center
Okanogan Family Planning
Palouse HIV Coalition
Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane
People of Color Against AIDS Network
Pierce County AIDS Foundation
Planned Parenthood Network of Washington
Planned Parenthood of Central Washington
Planned Parenthood of the Columbia Willamette
Planned Parenthood of the Inland Northwest
Planned Parenthood of the Inland Northwest Faith in Action Committee
Planned Parenthood of Western Washington
Polylang Translation Services, Inc.
Pride Foundation
Pride Foundation/Inland Northwest
Program for Appropriate Technology in Health
Puyallup United Methodist Church Puyallup, WA
Radical Women
Real Change
Seattle Chapter Hadassah
Seattle Metropolitan Elections Committee
Sexual Assault Center of Pierce County
Sid's Professional Pharmacy, Pullman
Spokane AIDS Network
Spokane Chapter of Inland Northwest Older Women's League
Spokane Women's Coalition
VOX: Voices for Planned Parenthood at Washington State University
Walla Walla County Democrats
Walla Walla Friends Meeting (Quaker)
Washington Association of Churches
Washington Citizen Action
Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs
Washington State Commission on Hispanic Affairs
Washington State Council on Family Planning
Washington State Labor Council
Washington State National Organization for Women
Washington State University Department of Women's Studies
Young Democrats of Whitworth College
YWCA of Bellingham
YWCA of Yakima
Hopefully common sense will rule the day with regards to this issue. Anyone who has a moral objection to dispensing a legitimate prescription should not become a pharmacist. That would be like a Hindu applying to work at McDonalds.