Druggists refuse to give out pill
By Charisse Jones, USA TODAY
For a year, Julee Lacey stopped in a CVS pharmacy near her home in a Fort Worth suburb to get refills of her birth-control pills. Then one day last March, the pharmacist refused to fill Lacey’s prescription because she did not believe in birth control.
“I was shocked,” says Lacey, 33, who was not able to get her prescription until the next day and missed taking one of her pills. “Their job is not to regulate what people take or do. It’s just to fill the prescription that was ordered by my physician.”
Some pharmacists, however, disagree and refuse on moral grounds to fill prescriptions for contraceptives. And states from Rhode Island to Washington have proposed laws that would protect such decisions.
Mississippi enacted a sweeping statute that went into effect in July that allows health care providers, including pharmacists, to not participate in procedures that go against their conscience. South Dakota and Arkansas already had laws that protect a pharmacist’s right to refuse to dispense medicines. Ten other states considered similar bills this year. […]
Jeeeez :rolleyes: just how far is this sort of new age bo11ocks going to go
What next ? car salesmen that refuse to sell cars because they are freinds of the earth … butchers that don’t sell meat because they are vegetarians … surgeons that won’t operate because they don’t believe in blood transfusions … gardeners that stand and watch the weeds grow because every living thing has a soul …
AAAAAAAAAARGHHHHH :wall: where’s my blooooody shotgun
simple in my eyes, you’re paid to do a job so do it.
Don’t be so sure, when I was at a well known now sinking supermarket, we advertised for a Beers Wines & Spirits assistant.
Personnell gave the job to some religious fella (cant remember which religion) who with his beliefs was not allowed contact or association with alcohol. Number 1, the guy accepted the job, turned up on the first day and said I can’t do that, and tried to pull the equal opportunities rubbish. Then we checked his application form and interview notes, he never mentioned his religion once, even though we did the standard ability questions. There is the front door mate, make sure the auto doors don’t hit your bum on the way out :chuckle:
I am sorry - but I do think that people have a right to their beliefs and I admire anyone in this day and age who sticks up for theirs.
The availability (or otherwise) of birth control is not life threatening to the user. If you want to use birth control, that is your right and you should be able to get it but do not expect to get it from someone who fundamentally disagrees with the use of birth control. There are plenty of other chemists around who will quite happily fill the prescription.
A Pharmacist is not there primarily to give out birth control. They have studied for many years to be qualified to know about the drugs they are there to dispense and, as a by-product, they are learned in many of the off-the-shelf drugs and medicines also sold at a pharmacy.
When I started work in I.T. it was a 9 - 5 job, writing code. Pretty soon I was expected to work weekends (esp. Sundays) which I objected to as I am a practising Christian. I was, for a long time, covertly discriminated against for holding this position but it was accepted that I had a right to take my stance. Nowadays Sunday is a normal working day for many folk and they can be sacked for refusing to work Sundays and people can be legally discriminated against for refusing to work Sundays.
I suppose you expect to walk into a cosher butchers and expect to buy pork? No? Then don’t expect every Pharmacist to dispense contraception. (And no - I am not Catholic and I did use contraception for many years until a minor op made their use unnecessary).
I agree , everybody has a right to their point of view , however bigotted and narrow minded that may be , BUT , they do NOT have the right to foist their biggotry on anybody else , they should do the job as required by anybody else ,( who by the way have the same right to their opinions ) or find another job .
Taking it to an extreme, would it be ok for, say, an “animal rights” activist to get a job at a general pharmacy, and then refuse to serve any product ever derived from or tested on animals? I’m not talking highly specailised stores here, but ones intended to serve the community as a whole.
On another note, I wonder what the pharmacy density there is around the world. Even in large villages here you often get at least two of them, and countless more in larger cities. If there are sufficient choices, then fair enough let market forces decide.
If you can’t do a job in good conscience, don’t do the job at all. I am a Catholic, but I believe it’s upto everyone to make up their own minds about things, and once they’re made up, I have no right to force my views upon them. There is the Buddhist ideal of “Right Livelihood” which I think all religions should keep.
What you also have to take into account is that most left-wing media [or any in this country] is incredibly anti-christian. If they put the sort of things they feel acceptable to say about Christians but directed them at other religious groups, there would be uproar.
Its life threatening to the Foetus that may be aborted as a result of non availability of contreception.
I have a m8 who is a paramedic and he is also a christian, If your wife or child had an accident on a sunday I sure you would take a differnt view if he decided not to treat them because it was a sunday.
Edit 7.30 am I was woken by Johovas ringing on the doorbell, they now know exactly where they stand.
Another quick point on unavailable contraception being life threatening…what about AIDS. Ok the artical was on about the pill but i’d guess her views would include all other forms of contraception too.
I work with pharmacists every day… I KNOW they are opinionated and typically stand their ground. As a rule, their choice to refuse dispensing a drug is based on their medical and chemical knowledge and knowing that a drug could interact hazardously to someone’s body and cause harm. I can agree with the pharmacist refusing to dispense if it was based on knowledge that the pill would have hurt the woman somehow. To refuse to dispense because of their own beliefs, well that pushes things a bit.
I’m more of a live and let live kind of person… maybe the pharmacist doesn’t believe in it, but they shouldn’t prevent someone else from using it. And as someone mentioned, they DO know what they are getting into taking that job as they spend plenty of time training for it.
