Dahlia Lithwick at Slate makes one of the most solid and comprehensive arguments against pharmacists having a right to refuse to dispense emergency conception on moral grounds that I have seen.
She also notes that “Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich filed a 150-day emergency rule requiring drugstores to either fill prescriptions or otherwise accommodate their patients.”
In my own Colorado, our Republican Governor Owens vetoed a law (sponsored by my own state senator) that would have simply required that emergency rooms inform rape victims of the existence of emergency contraception.
This was supposed to protect the rights of Catholic Hospitals to practice their religion. But, whose rights are more important: The rights of a corporation to practice its religion, or the rights of the ER staff who are being gagged by their employer to the extent that they cannot meet the standard of care for their profession, and the right of their patients who are rape victims to prevent a potential pregancy forced upon them at the butt of a gun. Republicans just don’t care about women who have been raped.
Well, the Governor of Colorado doesn’t anyway. Plenty of Republicans in the state legislature did support establishing notification of the existence of emergency contraception as part of the standard of care for treating rape victims, and plenty of people who are opposed to even abortion in general, both don’t have a problem with emergency contraception, which is simply a high dose birth control pill administered shortly after the incident in question, and don’t have a problem even with abortion in a rape case, something that happens in 50% of pregnancies that result from rape.
As was the case during the Republican overreach in the Terri Schiavo case, the people at the top of the “other party” are out of touch with the vast majority of ordinary Americans.
Republicans complain about the “Nanny State”. Well, the latest Republican efforts to involve themselves in an intimate end of life decision based on statements from a woman’s husband and two other people on what she would have wanted found credible by a court by clear and convincing evidence, and on the ability of rape victims to mitigate the harm they have suffered, is far worse. It is little more than thralldom to the state, and that is un-American.
Two related Booman Tribune stories spell out the ACLU stance on related federal legislation and the way Senator Kerry has used the pending federal legislation to box in Senator Santorum, a vulnerable Republican Senator facing re-election in 2006.
The more I read about this, the more irritated I get. Women are 50% of this country (round about). The majority are pro-choice, or at least pro doctor prescribed medication. Some few are not, but that’s another story. And a good number of men are as well.
Me, I think we should identify the pharmacies that have the temerity to deny women their doctor prescribed medication, or to lecture them or to hector them, and shout their names far and wide. And shout even louder the names of the ones that do no such thing.
This is insane.
someone should compile a list of incidents, and we can try to embarrass them by writing to their local papers.
I was also thinking of a more direct method of people just going down the phone book and calling the pharmacies in their cities, politely asking them what their policies are. Some are corporate owned, but some are local.
One would have to try and reach as close to the top person as possible, but getting them on record is important I think. Then just list the ones who say they have a policy of allowing refusal of prescriptions and ones that say they don’t. No intimidation or anything, just presenting options for people as to where they want to get their prescriptions filled, and which policies they wish to support.
That way, a list per area could be made up, also highlighting areas where there is only one option and that other pharmacies are miles away and so on.
Or something like that.
Perhaps this is the route to investigate.
If you, as a licensed and qualified physician, prescribe a medication for your patient, and I, as a pharmacist, for whatever reason, make the decision not to provide your patient with the medication, have I not just engaged in the practice of medicine, by unauthorizedly imposing my own treatment for the patient?
Shall your patient not report me to her local medical board as a quack?
Oh, good question. I believe each state has its own licensing board and laws… I don’t know if it goes down to the county level, but I don’t think so. . But that really wouldn’t matter, because you can say that’s what the pharmacists are doing, even if the state board doesn’t agree.
Finding out what the board rules are for each state would be good, too. I believe pharmacists have to be licensed too.
Hmmm…
It sure would be interesting to see what would happen if a man went down to one of these druggists to pick up some pills for his wife…
(insert complaint about lack of evil grin smilie)
…Pharmacies Fill All Prescriptions
i-Newswire, 2005-04-14 – A number of women around the country have recently been denied important family planning prescriptions by pharmacists who were personally against them.
The event will take place outside with the Capitol Dome as a back drop – Weather is expected to be sunny and 60 degrees – Will be a very good visual for cameras.
Who:
US Senator Frank R. Lautenberg ( D-NJ )
Rep. Carolyn Maloney ( D-NY )
Nancy Keenan, President of NARAL
Karen Pearl, Interim President, Planned Parenthood
Federation of America
When:
Thursday, April 14th, 2005 @ 11:30am
It’s a start, depending on how strong the legislation is. It doesn’t really say. But there’s no reason to wait for it to meander its way through the Senate and House, regardless. Although we can help drum up pressure on the bill. NARAL and Planned Parenthood are apparently supporting it, so hopefully it won’t be like the Kerry bill.
Thanks for finding that Slate article, that was one of the best, concise and levelheaded articles out there on this subject.