pharmacist refuses to give "the morning after" pill

[ABEL]

this makes me mad that a pharmacist would do such a thing and refuse a doctor's written prescription. while i share the pharmacists views on being 'pro-life' that's not what this is about.

it's about his duty as a pharmacist filling a prescription. while i'm not sure how i feel about the 'morning after' pill as a form of contraceptive birth control, i think in this case it's different as the woman had been a victim of rape. if he felt he couldn't give out the drug to the woman, at least he could have gotten someone else to do it. or perhaps he shouldn't work in a pharmacy knowing those drugs are there, and may actually be prescribed.

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/d.../stories/wfaa040202_am_pharmacy.79625125.html

Pharmacy's refusal to fill prescription protested

10:35 PM CST on Monday, February 2, 2004


By BRAD HAWKINS / WFAA-TV

Protestors said a Denton pharmacist crossed a line when he refused to fill a prescription based on his own personal beliefs.

The pharmacist, who worked at an Eckerd drugstore on University Drive, withheld a so-called "morning after" pill from a rape victim. M ore than two dozen protesters spent time out in front of the store Monday, expressing their displeasure with the decision.

"Pharmacists aren't supposed to play God," said protester Gloria Benavides. "If you need the medicine, they should give it to you."

The State Board of Pharmacy in Austin said pharmacists can refuse to fill a prescription but only on medical grounds, not over moral concerns. This woman's rape was medically confirmed by a doctor, who prescribed the pill.

It wasn't the victim's first stop; several other drugstores in town don't stock the drug. She eventually had the prescription filled across the street at a Walgreen's, but only after waiting 20 minutes at Eckerd.

A friend said the pharmacist told the woman that "this medication is designed to end life, and I cannot abide by that."

"After being raped and assaulted, to come into a pharmacy to get a prescription that is stocked there - an FDA-approved drug - and to be shut down, that's a second assault," said protester Stephanie Besier.

"To be faced with a pharmacist who moralizes to her, we find outrageous," said Kathryn Allen of Planned Parenthood of Texas. "This is not a chemical abortion; this is a large dose of birth control pills to prevent an unwanted pregnancy."

A spokeswoman for Florida-based Eckerd would not get specific in this case, but did say it had been reviewed and addressed. The chain's policy states it would not support any pharmacist's right to refuse to fill a prescription based on political, moral or religious convictions.

Still, some gathered Monday said they plan to take their business elsewhere.

"I pulled all my prescriptions from here, and will no longer use Eckerd," Besier said.

 

[pax]

This pharmacist has just paved the way for one more abortion. I hope he and all his pro-life friends are happy.

I also hope he faces some legal action.

 

[verte76]

This burns me up. You're right, pax, this is *asking* for abortion. He's supposed to fill a prescription. Damn.

 

[nbcrusader]

Uhh. Nevermind.


Leave this to the licensing board. If this is improper behavior, the pharmacist will lose his/her license and be out of work.

 

[meegannie]

This pharmacist has just paved the way for one more abortion. I hope he and all his pro-life friends are happy.

Considering the fact that he views the 'morning after' pill as abortion, I doubt it makes a difference. Just that he'd be the 'abortionist' in one situation.

 

[najeena]

WRONG

This guy's job is to fill legal prescriptions, his personal beliefs should have absolutely no bearing on the matter. He should lose his license.

 

[Liesje]

That's really sick. I thought the morning-after pill was a standard proceedure after the rape kit, what right does he have to say it's wrong? NO RIGHT! Now I am pro-life, but when it's a rape case, come on! Of course he's a guy so luckily he'll never know what it's like to be raped and then judged like that...he should definitely loose his license.

 

[FizzingWhizzbees]

Well firstly I'd like to ask him a few questions about his opinions on supplying other forms of contraception. Presumably he has some medical knowledge considering he qualified as a pharmacist, so I'm sure he'd be able to answer.

1) Does he accept that emergency contraception works in several ways to prevent pregnancy: it prevents ovulation, prevents sperm entering the uterus so making fertilisation less likely and alters the lining of the uterus meaning that it is less likely that a fertilised egg will implant.

2) Does he accept that most contraceptive pills work in the same way (except for progestogen-only pills)?

3) Does the pharmacist base his objection to emergency contraception on the belief that if the medication prevents a fertilised egg from implanting in the uterus then it has "ended life."?

4) If the answer to the above question is yes, does he therefore refuse to supply contraceptive pills on the basis that one of the ways in which they prevent pregnancy is to prevent a fertilised egg from implanting?

I'd hate to have to call him a hypocrite.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

"Pharmacists aren't supposed to play God," said protester Gloria Benavides. "If you need the medicine, they should give it to you."

but wouldn't reversing something that... never mind...


so someone standing up for what they believe in is only a good thing when you, too, believe in it... i see.

that said... if the guy is so strong in his belief that the morning after pill is wrong, he shouldn't work in a phramacy that carries it. go work for one of those stores mentioned that doesn't carry it.

 

[pax]

that said... if the guy is so strong in his belief that the morning after pill is wrong, he shouldn't work in a phramacy that carries it. go work for one of those stores mentioned that doesn't carry it.

I think we'd all agree that would be the truly ethical thing for him to do, but what are women supposed to do when they've been RAPED and they cannot get a legally prescribed presciption? Is it really ethical to require a woman in such a situation to go out of her way for a legally prescribed prescription? It's not unthinkable that this woman might have to go five or ten miles out of her way, or possibly more; don't forget the statistic that millions of women in the United States live more than fifty miles from a women's health care facility (and this is NOT just abortions--this includes contraceptives, other family planning advice, and even routine examinations).

 

[joyfulgirl]

I think it is APPALLING. She was RAPED for God's sake. RAPED!!. Doors should fling wide open to help a woman who has been raped instead of slammed in her face. Who knows the horrors she endured being RAPED This makes me absolutely sick--that a woman's LEGAL rights and well-being were completely ignored. The doctor is 'lucky' she didn't kill herself because of his misguided 'principles.'

 

[melon]

We're becoming more like Iran every day.

Melon

 

[pax]

I think it is APPALLING. She was RAPED for God's sake. RAPED!!. Doors should fling wide open to help a woman who has been raped instead of slammed in her face. Who knows the horrors she endured being RAPED This makes me absolutely sick--that a woman's LEGAL rights and well-being were completely ignored. The doctor is 'lucky' she didn't kill herself because of his misguided 'principles.'

 

[FizzingWhizzbees]

so someone standing up for what they believe in is only a good thing when you, too, believe in it... i see.

No. Somebody standing up for what they believe at the expense of a woman who had just had one of the most horrifying experiences imaginable isn't a good thing though. If this pharmacist wants to spend his weekends picketing family planning clinics or donate 10% of his salary to pro-life causes, that's his prerogative. He does not, however, have the right to deny a woman access to a medication prescribed by her doctor based on nothing more than his own personal beliefs.

What's next? Pharmacists refusing to dispense pre-natal vitamins to a woman because she's having a baby outside of marriage and in their opinion that's wrong?

 

[anitram]

I think it is APPALLING. She was RAPED for God's sake. RAPED!!. Doors should fling wide open to help a woman who has been raped instead of slammed in her face. Who knows the horrors she endured being RAPED This makes me absolutely sick--that a woman's LEGAL rights and well-being were completely ignored. The doctor is 'lucky' she didn't kill herself because of his misguided 'principles.'

ITA.

Absolutely heinous on his part.

He should lose his license and never be allowed to work as a pharmacist again. It is not enough to have him work in a pharmacy that doesn't carry the morning after pill. Who knows what other beliefs he holds that are not in the best interest of the patient as determined by his or her doctor.

It's absolutely disgusting.

 

[Liesje]

I wonder if the pharmacist would've acted the same way had the rape victim been a 12 year old girl.....

and I completely agree with paxetaurora and joyfulgirl

 

[BVS]

I wonder if the pharmacist would've acted the same way had the rape victim been a 12 year old girl.....

Or his own daughter.

 

[Angela Harlem]

I wonder if the pharmacist at the time realised she was a rape victim. Which then begs the response, what difference does it make as he still refused a perfectly legitimate medical prescription. This woman's horrific experience seems to be used in a way to make this pharmacist look even more in the wrong. It certainly adds to the trauma this woman has already been through, but a breach of the State Board of Pharmacy's guidelines is a breach regardless of what circumstances it occurs under.

 

[ABEL]

I wonder if the pharmacist at the time realised she was a rape victim. Which then begs the response, what difference does it make as he still refused a perfectly legitimate medical prescription.

exactly. it shouldn't matter since it's a legal medical prescription, whether you agree with it or not. if he questions the prescription and feels the need to, he should call the doctor and find out about it BEFORE refusing a treatment to a patient who needs it and has already been thru so much.

 

[OzAurora]

This pharmacist sounds like a real wanker, I have absolutely no time for self righteous idiots who make it their job in life to impose onto other people their beliefs, morals etc.... So many occupations will place people into situations that may at times conflict with their morals, beliefs etc, however being an adult means that one must either be objective (I say this as I am a freelance journalist, and as a journalist you are always being made aware of conflicts of interest) when a troublesome situation comes about, or if you feel so strongly about something, then get out. Surely this pharmacist has been placed in this situation before or knew that it would happen one day, instead of imposing their subjective opinion onto someone else, therfore creating harm to that person, why didn't they just realise that their chosen profession was going to impose onto their beliefs and not get into that area in the first place. Seeking out a perfectly legal perscription shouldn't come with a guilt laden ethical judgement by a self righteous pharmacist.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Southwest/02/12/pharmacy.firing.ap/index.html

Even in 2004, rape victims being treated in an inhumane manner doesn't surprise me at all

 

[ABEL]

i just heard an update on this case on the news today...it was just a blurb about it and i was on the computer so i wasn't really paying attention to the tv, but they said something about there were 2 other pharmacists in the area (for the same company) who also refused to give the drug. i think they'd all 'conspired' together or something, they were repremanded for it...i'll have to look it up, that's all the info i have right now...

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

I have absolutely no time for self righteous idiots who make it their job in life to impose onto other people their beliefs, morals etc.... So many occupations will place people into situations that may at times conflict with their morals, beliefs etc, however being an adult means that one must either be objective (I say this as I am a freelance journalist, and as a journalist you are always being made aware of conflicts of interest) when a troublesome situation comes about, or if you feel so strongly about something, then get out.

.

I don't care if the pharmacist is personally pro-life, that's his belief and that's fine. But I gotta agree with the others-the woman has every right to be able to use this pill if she wants to, especially considering she was raped. This guy's a moron for not letting her use it.

Angela