Comments on Federal Court: Pharmacists Can Refuse to Dispense Emergency Contraception

We need and easily accessibly list of any pharmacist who does this and the businesses that employee them. That way we can exercise our rights to not frequent their establishments.

ECB, very, very important that I stress that I agree with you wholeheartedly, and have written about it. However, a point of clarification is in order: This was not a judicial ruling of standing, it was a judge refusing to suspend another order allowing this while the suspension is on appeal. So hope springs eternal for the good guys. The case is still on appeal, and continues to move forward.

The case hasn't been decided. The court is just upholding a preliminary injunction issued by a lower court while it hears the appeal. They are just saying that neither side has won this argument yet, so they'll leave the status quo in place until they're ready to rule.

That's just good jurisprudence. I know that her side winning the culture wars is more important to ECB than good jurisprudence, but that might not be the case for all her readers.

Remind me again: Why do “pro-lifers” say they’re against abortion when everything they do seems geared at forcing more women to become pregnant?

Because those two are not mutually exclusive. Are you daft?

I'm going to become a pharmacist then convert to Christian Science. I'd have the most cake job ever! I could just refuse to ever fill any prescriptions and they couldn't fire me for it. Sweet!

Has anyone ever encountered a pharmacist who asked a man brandishing a Viagra/Cialis prescription if he was married? And then refused to fill it if the answer was negative? That would be interesting.

Good point, tsm. Or condoms, for that matter. I doubt that it's ever happened.

@6 and @7: I'd love to see some active recruitment for this to start happening. Wonder what the press would look like after that kind of outrage? HA!

As one involved in the industry, here's my take.

You went to school to be a pharmacist. You dispense medications and advice on using them safely. You are not licensed to moralize.

You are employed by a pharmacy that dispenses Plan B or birth control. It's your job to fill it.

If not, your ass should be fired.

If you can't get your head around the concept, look at it like this:

You went to school to be a doctor, specifically OB/GYN. You deal in womens' reproductive health, including abortion. You are not licensed to moralize.

You are employed by a hospital or clinic that performs abortion. It's your job to do it.

If not, your ass should be fired.

Seems pretty simple.

I always found it ironic the term "reproductive health" typically results in something very unhealthy for the unborn baby.

That's because the moralists have done such a good job of turning the term into something negative.

Abortion is a tiny part of the entire spectrum of womens' reproductive health.

I'd not use "unborn baby" until after about the 6th month or so. Before that, it's very likely not a viable human being outside the womb.

"Unborn baby" is another term that's been unnecessarily yet intentionally "loaded."

But that depends on your religious and moralistic views, I suppose...

as one who supports the right to choose, i can also concede the point that an unborn fetus is "life." but i find the stance against b.c. daft--if you can prevent "life" from being terminated by preventing it from happening in the first place by the use of b.c., isn't that a sane option? it's not logical to oppose them both. it's inhumane.

Thanks ellarosa. By way of at least some disclosure, I work in pharmacy full-time. This debate pisses me off.

Maybe I don't agree that you need that bladder infection med your doctor gave you. Can I refuse to fill it?

How about if I decide that cough isn't bad enough to warrant the med you have the Rx for?

What if I think your cancer doesn't need the oral chemo you have the prescription for?

Can I change your life by refusing? Yes. Do I have the right to interfere? No. It's not what my license says I'm trained to do.

It's not my place to do so.

You want to moralize? Find another line of work. Medicine's not for you if you feel a need to push your beliefs on others in the course of your job duties.

@10,

When women don't have access to safe abortion procedures, they'll get abortions in unsafe conditions, which can lead to serious injury, infertility, or death. So, yes, access to safe abortion is a fundamental part of reproductive health, assuming that you give a shit about the health of teenage girls and adult women. I'm assuming you don't.

I guess ... what amazes me about the beginning of life is how it really does change depending on what is morally convenient. I remember reading that in the middle ages, when women had no identity as humans, men planted seeds in women. when sperm was discoveredd to be the fertile componant of seamen, it was kind of weird ... there were millions of sperm and now they were all supposed to be sacred ... so the sancity of life kind of became discretionary. Combined with the instance of miscarriages, it was believed that the soul didn't migrate into body until after the the third trimester.

This became morally inconvenient when abortions became possible.

You know what? Fuck religion. Believing in god is one thing, and I would be perfectly cool with that, but overpopulating the planet with more and more miserable souls... if there is a hell, there will be a special place for you people. A hell where everyone is at war over natrition, love, shelter, and all natural resources.

You can get Plan B over the counter in many pharmacies, with no prescription needed. If I were still of reproductive age, I think I'd keep a pack in the medicine cabinet just in case. Trying to find a "friendly" pharmacy has got to be easier when you AREN'T in an emergency situation.

I wonder: what's the difference between a christian pharmacist that won't sell Plan B (whom the right will support) and a muslim taxi driver that won't accept a drunk passenger (whom the right would excoriate) ?

Either way, I see providers of public service refusing to do their jobs for religious reasons, both dubious. Why can't they just leave _their_ religion out of _my_ life, whether I want to get laid or smashed?

@5:
If you are employed by Walgreens and they tell you to sell Plan B, you'll get fired if you don't no matter what.

This is about whether or not someone can run their own business (a Pharmacy) according to their principles. The question addressed is whether or not the availability of pharmaceuticals be based on the free market or on government mandates. It's not even a prescription drug (unless you're a minor).

But, for the sake of argument, say a Pharmacist is forced by law to sell Plan B to the boyfriend of a girl who just got knocked up. She wants to keep the baby and he doesn't, so he slips her the drug and she miscarries (I think I saw that on Law and Order). Under current law, depending on the state, I think he can get tried for manslaughter. But the Pharmacist could not have refused the sale even given foreknowledge of the crime to be committed.

"The Pill Kills Babies"?

I checked the link just to make sure they weren't talking about Plan B there, and they're not. They have a slightly gritty-looking little logo of a round package of birth control and everything.

So, apparently they think every month we are killing a HYPOTHETICAL baby or something? Why don't they just have "Women are nothing more than baby incubators day" and be done with it?

@19:

Oh, I'm sure they're working on that, even as we sit here debating the issue. They're just waiting for the right time to spring it on us is all.

And with reference to your last couple of sentences, Erica: "Yes, by all means, let’s oppose birth control, ban medically accurate sex education, eliminate access to emergency contraception, ban abortion, and then shame girls and damn them to hell when they get pregnant anyway. That’ll show ‘em. Sluts"

Um, yeah, that's PRECISELY the mind-set we're dealing with in the extremist on the anti-abortion side; they don't want any unmarried female of child-bearing age to feel any other way if they have sexual intercourse with someone who's not their husband, and for recreational as opposed to procreative purposes.

Because, as everyone knows, SEX IS EVIL! If it weren't for Eve, human beings would probably still be made one-at-a-time by God's own hands out of mud, which would be much preferable in the minds of Fundies, than the current dirty, filthy, EVIL method of making humans we got stuck with as a result of her sluttiness.

@18: A pharmacist should sell any prescription a doctor writes. PERIOD. It is my understanding that their primary responsibility is to make sure patients are clear on how to properly take medication prescribed by a physician for any number of ailments.

How a man came about convincing a doctor he was pregnant and in need of plan B is beyond my comprehension... But what the hell, let's assume he did.

Are you saying that any drug that could possibly be used to drug someone should be taken off the market? In that case, buh-bye painkillers and sleep aides! (just to name a few).

Time to start the Every Woman Needs A Good Pharmacist posts. Every time a pharmacy refuses to fill one of these prescriptions based on their personal beliefs dispite the fact IT'S THEIR FUCKING JOB, post the name of the pharmacy here.

I'm really not joking, I want to know who to boycott.

Hot damn, sometimes I really think we are only a handful of Christianists away from a national "Every Sperm is Sacred" day of protest.

Not surprisingly, all of the unwed teenage mothers that I knew in high school were devout conservative Christians.

Every time I see something about this it makes me so angry, not just for the completely asinine 'moral' stance of the Senior Anti-Sex League, but for the way they try to dress it up as part and parcel of Christianity. According to them, if you give a shit about Jesus, you won't let any women anywhere have access to contraceptives. Apparently this is more important than service to the poor, visiting people in prison, promoting peace and tolerance, caring for the sick, etc.

K @19 -

Re: "The Pill Kills Babies" - The drug info in the PDR (from the drug companies as required by the FDA)states "Combination oral contraceptives act by suppression of gonadotropins. Although the primary mechanism of this action is inhibition of ovulation, other alterations include changes in the cervical mucus, which increase the difficulty of sperm entry into the uterus, and changes in the endometrium which reduce the likelihood of implantation."

What this means is that in the event ovulation is not suppressed (which is not guaranteed), fertilized ovum find an environment inhospitable to implantation. In the pro-life world, this is considered an abortion, given the life begins at conception. That is what is meant by "the pill kills babies".

You may not agree, but that is where the debate about contraception begins.

@25, and now thanks to modern science, the whole every oocyte is sacred thing is becoming as impractical as every sperm is sacred was. Yes, there is a debate about when "life begins", but we can't just live in the stone age ... we have to evolve and recognize the world we live and the demands we have on it.

God said, "be fruitful and multiply" ... and well, we did, a LOT ... and common sense says we should stop. Regardless, we are still living creatures and thus sexual beings. Having sex for pleasure only is at least not putting more burden on the planet ... and it gives us something to live for ... that and chocolate. Right?

@25: This argument might actually have merit if it weren't for the existence of fertility drugs. How many fertilized eggs are spontaneously aborted when a woman gets pregnant after taking those? Two? Three?

@27. A lot of people don't agree with fertility drugs for that same very reason actually.

A couple of important points that many of the above posters seem to be missing...

First, Plan B (also known as "the morning after pill") is not the same thing as RU-486 (also known as "the abortion pill"). Plan B is basically a high dose of the medication in standard birth control pills. It mainly works by stopping the ovary from releasing an egg. It may also prevent fertilization or attachment to the uterus, but it doesn't do anything to a fertilized egg which has already attached. Hence, a concerned boyfriend could not slip one to his girlfriend to abort her pregnancy.

Second, the drug is not available by prescription. It's sold over the counter, but you have to talk to the pharmacist to get it (just like buying pseudoephedrine now). This debate isn't about pharmacists having the right to not fill prescriptions they disagree with, because this drug doesn't require one. It's about if pharmacists should be required by law to carry and dispense this specific over the counter drug.

Over the counter emergency contraception depends only on the state. Actually, I think the FDA has been postponing the ruling on whether to make it over the counter and the only state that I know of where you can get emergency contraception is California.

As for RU-486 (which is a terrible name if you think about it). I believe you take AT THAT CLINIC, and not at home.

Said Law and Order was total fiction ... I would buy it more if they have those noxious chinese herbs

Over the counter emergency contraception depends only on the state. Actually, I think the FDA has been postponing the ruling on whether to make it over the counter and the only state that I know of where you can get emergency contraception is California.

As for RU-486 (which is a terrible name if you think about it). I believe you take AT THAT CLINIC, and not at home.

Said Law and Order was total fiction ... I would buy it more if they have those noxious chinese herbs