Pitting Fundie Pharmacists Who Won't Fill Birth-Control Prescriptions

[Mtgman]

@gobear

According to the AMA’s Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, a physician may not discontinue treatment of a patient as long as further treatment is medically indicated, without giving the patient reasonable notice and sufficient opportunity to make alternative arrangements for care.

So if the doctor refused to perform a D&C because he wishes to impose his moral framework on his patient, he might be looking at an ethics review board hearing.

Ok, “medically indicated” is a term of art. It means, according to the MedTerms Dictionary at MedicineNet.com “a treatment or procedure advisable because of a particular condition or circumstance.” What about an unwanted, but otherwise normal, pregnancy “indicates” a D&C?

Enjoy,
Steven

[NDP]

@holmes

Shodan Where does this end? Birth control is easy, what about blood pressure medicine for an overweight person. Should the pharmacist, be able to consider me a glutton and refuse to fill out my form? Can he deny my kid his ADD meds, because all my kid needs is a good spanking? No meds for the blacks, cause they have the stain of Cain.

My question to you is, is there any line in the sand? When does public duty and make no mistake that what this is, trump personal choice? Does it never?

And therein lies another big problem with allowing pharmacists to refuse to fill certain prescriptions on grounds they’re immoral: where does it stop? Perhaps a pharmacist is a Scientologist or a follower of Thomas Szasz and, because he believes mental illness to be a “myth” and psychiatry to be evil, refuses to fill prescriptions for lithium, anti-depressants and anti-psychotic medications. Should a pharmacist who’s an animal-rights advocate have the right to refuse to fill prescriptions for drugs that were tested on animals? After all, why should those who morally object to birth control pills be the only ones afforded high ground? (BTW, I’ve noticed that every business I’ve seen that has a pharmacy also sells condoms and other over-the-counter birth control devices. Do these fundie pharmacists also have a problem with those too?)

I’m sorry if this sounds cold but, if you’re a pharmacist, filling birth control prescriptions is likely going to be a big part of your job. If you have a religious problem with them, you should probably think of another line of work. These people are like PETA members who go to work in a slaughterhouse and are suddenly shocked, shocked that their job might involve the harming of animals!

[gigi]

It seems like a pretty clear line between right-to-life issues and other moral issues that do not involve a human life. Barrier contraceptives do not cause abortions so they wouldn’t cross that line. Perhaps one can compromise on issues that don’t concern the rights of another to life.

Also, there are OBGYNs who refuse to be trained in abortion and presumably they are upfront about that when taking a job. Abortions aren’t necessarily a requirement of these docs’ jobs and they shouldn’t be sanctioned for not performing them on demand.

[RTFirefly]

@gigi

It seems like a pretty clear line between right-to-life issues and other moral issues that do not involve a human life. Barrier contraceptives do not cause abortions so they wouldn’t cross that line. Perhaps one can compromise on issues that don’t concern the rights of another to life.

I don’t see ‘compromise’ being part of the personality makeup of the pro-birth faction. They have no interest, for instance, in working with pro-choice people to reduce the demand for abortions through better sex ed and so forth.

I think they just want to push their worldview as far as they can, using each step to bootstrap the next. The justification for going after oral contraceptives is apparently pretty specious; there doesn’t appear to be any solid evidence that they - or even the MAP - work by preventing implantation rather than conception. But they’re against it, and I can only assume that’s on the grounds that they just don’t like people having sex if they’re not in the business of growing a family.

If they succeed in stigmatizing oral contraceptives, why would one think that they wouldn’t just do their damnedest to extend that stigmatization to other forms of contraception?

Also, there are OBGYNs who refuse to be trained in abortion and presumably they are upfront about that when taking a job. Abortions aren’t necessarily a requirement of these docs’ jobs and they shouldn’t be sanctioned for not performing them on demand.

Nobody here is criticizing them, AFAICT.

[irishgirl]

Well, for some people, barrier methods are not acceptable for religious reasons.
Can’t wait to see what happens when they try to stop someone in THAT boat from getting her BCPs.

Other methods which prevent implantation, such as IUDS, usually aren’t stocked by pharmacies, thank goodness.

[Frank]

In the news from CNN:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich approved an emergency rule Friday requiring pharmacies to fill birth control prescriptions quickly after a Chicago pharmacist refused to fill an order because of moral opposition to the drug.

The emergency rule takes effect immediately for 150 days while the administration seeks a permanent rule.

“Our regulation says that if a woman goes to a pharmacy with a prescription for birth control, the pharmacy or the pharmacist is not allowed to discriminate or to choose who he sells it to,” Blagojevich said. “No delays. No hassles. No lectures.”

Hurray for Gov. Blagojevich. And hurray for the Illinois department which cited the pharmacy.

And in closing, I note that Shodan was not interested in addressing my question.

[margin]

@This Year's Model

In the news from CNN:
Hurray for Gov. Blagojevich. And hurray for the Illinois department which cited the pharmacy.

And in closing, I note that Shodan was not interested in addressing my question.

Of course he’s not interested. Just get a load of his previous replies.

This governor has some balls and some integrity. It’ll be interesting to see if other states follow suit.