Emergency Contraception Emergency!
Some bad news came out of yesterday’s Board of Pharmacy hearing.
Here’s the report from Planned Parenthood:
The language originally proposed at yesterday’s meeting by the Department of Health would have required that pharmacists fill all lawfully prescribed drugs and devices unless those drugs are unsafe for the client or fraudulent, or if there is another pharmacist available on-site who will fill the prescription.But by the end of the meeting an alternative version emerged that permits a pharmacist to refuse to serve a patient and refer them elsewhere.
The meeting was largely dominated by Pharmacy Board member Donna Dockter, a Seattle pharmacist whose term expires next January. Dockter spent the majority of the meeting expressing her strong opposition to a pharmacists’ duty to fill lawful prescriptions and advocated for new language that would permit a pharmacist to refuse a patient and refer them somewhere else.
Dockter’s version reads that if a pharmacist “cannot fill a lawfully prescribed stocked drug or device,” that pharmacist may “transfer the prescription to another pharmacist,” regardless of whether the other pharmacy stocks the drug or not.
As I’ve reported: refusals are a problem in Seattle.
Governor Gregoire needs to make it clear to the board that protecting women’s health is more important than protecting a fundamentalist’s feelings.
What can I do about this? Are there any more meetings to attend or people to whom to write angry letters?