Well, I don’t say that every single woman would have made that choice, but I also believe that some might – see, e.g., Michelle Duggar, who seems to be quite happy at her near-constant pregnancy.
Dear Og we can only hope so.
True, true.
But the OP acknowledges that:
When these threads have come up previously, the focus has been along the lines of, “How dare they? They should be forced to sell these things, or have their licenses taken away!” Naturally, I’ve been a staunch defender of the right of pharmacies to sell (or refuse to sell) what they please.
But this thread is different – the OP says, in effect, I acknowledge your right to not sell anything you want, and I’m saying you (the pharmacists) are idiots for making these sales choices.
I think I agree.
I’m a practicing Catholic, and I follow the Church’s teachings on birth control. But there’s no particular reason to assume that others, non-Catholics, should do the same. Moreover, since the bulk of these people are also not following the Church’s teachings on abstinence and avoidance of pre- and extra-martial sex, there are plenty of valid, health-related reasons to make condoms and birth control pills available. I would much rather see someone sell condoms and birth control pills than see a woman deal with an unwanted pregnancy by abortion. I would much rather see someone sell condoms than see a cheating spouse bring an STD into the martial home and infect the innocent spouse.
Obviously, the best answer would be for people to realize the wisdom of all the Church’s teachings. But we cannot apply these teachings a la carte and expect good results. It’s a foolish and shortsighted view for these pharmacists to take.
So this Pitting, I agree with.
Please re-read my OP which says:
I never said they shouldn’t be able to run whatever type of retail establishment they want. The point is, they have an active agenda to take choice away from us. They actively want to prevent us from accessing important health care options. They are promoting lies in order to do this.
Then they try to trick regular folks into shopping at their religious establishment by not making clear the nature of their business and their beliefs. That takes away my ability to make an informed choice.
Yeah I know - I mentioned her a few posts ago:
The difference is, she and her husband are bona fide religious nuts.
I guess they’re not true Scotsmen, either.
Fair enough. Like I said, I think it is a poor business model, and I certainly wouldn’t go about business in this fashion. But that’s their choice to make.
If you believe in choice, then you ought to accept that people may sometimes make poor choices or ones you don’t agree with. And while I am lukewarm on that notion when it comes to abortion rights (believing other considerations must be factored in as well) I certainly agree with that when it comes to retail economics.
These guys didn’t want to sell birth control, so they set up their own businesses so they wouldn’t have to. And while I do have issues with the particular way they’re going about that, I do respect the fact that they went out on their own and made their own choices.
See, no. They can make all the choices they want, as long as they don’t infringe on my rights. I don’t care what they choose to do with regards to their own lives, their own bodies, their own families. Like with the Duggars, I respect (even applaud) their choice to have a gazillion kids, as long as they are doing it willingly (i.e. exercising choice) and that their choices don’t harm others. Yay for them, really.
However, where I get furious is when this movement actively seeks to deny me MY choices regarding my body and my fertility. They want to prevent me from accessing basic health care. My birth control pill is the most important medication I take every day, and they are actively trying to take that choice – THAT RIGHT – away from me. They want to either (1) take away my ability to have sex or (2) force me to bear unwanted children.
Do you not see how that is a bad thing?
I don’t live close enough to Washington to even consider the possibility of ever doing business with this pharmacy, but if I did I would make sure to patronize another pharmacy and tell them why they were getting my business. This is one of those situations where people are able to vote with their money and hopefully those people who consider birth control a basic and fundamental part of women’s health will not so much as buy a stick of gum from this place.
On a completely unrelated note, he looks like Rush Limbaugh and Gollum’s love child.
A “pro-life” pharmacy certainly doesn’t sound like a successful business model. I’m one of millions of young-to-middle aged American women who are current or former users of oral contraceptives. I literally cannot name a female friend who isn’t in that same group. And IME, for those of us who are married, to the extent a household choice is made about what pharmacy to go to, it is made by the woman. (IME, the guy doesn’t care.)
I can’t see any one of us taking our business to this pharmacy. It’s not a matter of politics or outrage, it’s literally as simple as, this business does not meet my needs. I have a prescrpition I need filled, and they will not fill it. Therefore, not only will I choose to go somewhere else, I have to go somewhere else.
So not only are they losing all the business from contraceptives sales, they are losing all the business of any person whose purchase might even include contraceptives occasionally. And that’s pretty much everybody I know.
Seems like a pretty thin customer base. I give them a year.
I would note that this comment sort of skews the clear lines that were drawn above.
Are you contending that a pharmacy that chooses to avoid birth control products is taking away your rights? Because here I would disagree – whatever your rights in this area are, they don’t extend to requiring a business to stock items they don’t wish to stock… which I thought you agreed to in the OP.
On the other hand, if you’re now merely inveighing against the general movement’s goals, then we’re into another argument entirely.
I bet they sell calendars!
Ah, but they also laughed at my plans to become a Kosher charcutier…
As for them not stocking condoms, well, fine. That’s their decision, and while I personally think it’s obnoxiously stupid in a surprising variety of ways, so be it.
When it comes to them not filling prescriptions for birth control, that pisses me off. It’s not unreasonable to expect that, if you have a prescription for a drug, that you can walk into a pharmacy and they will fill it. That’s what pharmacists do. You get paid huge amounts of money to count pills into bottles - or in the case of most hormonal birth control to slap a label on a prefilled container of pills. Your own moral judgement simply doesn’t enter into it. If you want to do that, become a priest or a politician or a lobbyist. Hell, become a doctor if you want to tell people what drugs they can and can’t take. But if you’re a pharmacist, your job is to fill a prescription and that’s all. Just do your fucking job and shut up.
This is all part of a strategy to deprive women of controlling their fertility. Several states are trying to pass legislation giving “freedom of conscience acts” so pharmacists can use their own religious beliefs when deciding what medication they give out or withhold. If you were not doing you job I.E. filling prescriptions you could be fired, now your job would be safe while making customers follow your religious practices.
This whole business shines a light on the fundamental dishonesty of the “pro life” movement. For all their talk of saving babies they really want only two things, either Mrs. Duggar or no sex.
In one way it’s good to see their real goals out in the open maybe the women in America will finally wise up.
It’s also not unreasonable to expect that if I walk into a drugstore, they’ll sell me condoms. Why is it okay not to sell one product and not okay to not sell the other?
Either it’s alright to refuse to sell birth control or it isn’t. Make up your mind.
I wonder if they’ll stock KY, or any other products typically found in the “feminine care” section. Heck, I bet they won’t even stock tampons.
I would find it highly amusing if they stocked personal massage devices though.
The Pill (in its many varieties) is a prescription medication that one would expect a pharmacist to provide. I believe that a pharmacist is dutybound to provide any prescription that is written by a doctor. Condoms are not a prescription medication. The difference between the two is not that difficult to understand.
I think this needs repeated again and again. Women of America you are one supreme court justice away from loosing your ability to obtain contraception.
Actually, they have quite a few more responsibilities than that.
But I’ll wait for a friendly pharmacist to pop in to provide further elucidation.
Bull.