The Morning News
Good Morning Gov. Gregoire. You are now the Governor of a state, a blue state, that’s poised to have a Refusal Clause on the books. That is: On your watch, your Board of Pharmacy endorsed new rules that allow pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for whatever reason they want. The Seattle Times has the front-page story this morning.
Although, it’s not clear The Seattle Times truly gets it.
They say the Board’s proposed rules prevent a pharmacist from obstructing a patient’s ablility to obtain a prescription.
But here’s the language of the Board’s proposed rule (which I Slogged & slogged about yesterday afternoon…and Wednesday too ):
(1) A pharmacist and pharmacy ancillary personnel shall not obstruct a patient in obtaining a lawfully prescribed drug or device. If a pharmacist cannot dispense a lawfully prescribed stocked drug or device, then the pharmacist must provide timely alternatives for the patient to obtain treatment. These alternatives may include, but are not limited to: (a) referring the patient or patient’s agent to another on-site pharmacist, (b) if requested by patients or their agents, transfer the prescription to a pharmacy of the patient’s choice; (c) providing the medication at another time consistent with the normal timeframe for the prescription, (d) consulting with the prescriber to provide an alternative medication therapy, (e) return unfilled lawful prescription to the patient or agent, (f) provide to patient or agent a timely alternative for appropriate therapy.
It’s no wonder The Seattle Times was a little confused. This language is so bad that, am I reading this correctly, it says one of the options for providing a timely alternative is “providing medication another time” …. ? Much worse: the language says a pharmacist can “return the unfilled prescription” … if “they cannot dispense [it]” even though the rule begins by saying “a pharmacist shall not obstruct a patient in obtaining a lawfully prescribed drug or device.”
The story is also on the front-page of the PI.
I’ve been writing and Slogging about this issue for months. Here’s the first story I wrote last April when I broke the news that the board had received formal complaints about pharmacists, including a Seattle pharmacist, who were already refusing to fill prescriptions related to birth control.
All along, I urged Gov. Gregoire to use her bully pulpit to pressure the Washington State Board of Pharmacy (which she appoints) to prioritize a patient’s health over a pharmacist’s feelings.
I don’t know if she simply never took the issue seriously, but she never weighed in…in a substantive way. Now, Gregoire—who campaigned in 2004 on the fact that Dino Rossi was a scary social conservative—is stuck w perhaps the scariest, socially conservative “conscience clause” in the country: One that allows pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for any reason at all. “You want birth control? You’re not married? Sorry, I can’t fill that prescription.”
You blew it Gov. Gregoire. A lot of people (like the Northwest Women’s Law Center & Planned Parnethood & NARAL) are disappointed in you…and pissed. I know that they are meeting w you today to pressure you to finally…finally do something. (At this point, I’m not sure what you can do. If the Board puts this in the rule book at its final August 31 vote, only the legislature can undo it.)
Here’s what I wrote a month ago:
During Christine Gregoire’s lackluster campaign for governor in 2004, the Democratic Party—aware that Gregoire wasn’t giving Democrats any meaty reasons to vote for her—resorted to badmouthing Gregoire’s opponent, Dino Rossi. The Democrats rightly painted Rossi as a social conservative who opposed blue-state litmus tests like abortion rights. And so Gregoire, despite running as a cipher, eked out a victory based on who she’s not. But it turns out she’s not who she’s not.With social conservatives launching a massive assault on women’s rights in Olympia, Gregoire is nowhere to be found.
Gregoire finally showed up yesterday afternoon when she fired off an angry letter to the Board. However, Seattle pharmacist Donna Dockter, the board member who drafted the new rule, scoffed at Gregoire: “The Governor is not a pharmacist,” she said.
The governor doesn’t seem like much of a governor either.
I am shocked that one of the alternatives is providing the medicine at another time. Just think about that with emergency contraception. Getting the meds a week or month later (there appears to be no 'reasonability' restriction in the language of the rule) not only defeats the medical purpose of the prescription, but potentially creates a medically serious situation for the person seeking the contraception.
Now think about emergency medication for persons inadvertantly exposed to HIV. A month later and you're HIV positive.
This is nothing less than a license for pharmacists to kill.