Once again, pharmacists have been given the option of deciding which medicines they choose to dispense.
Pharmacists in Illinois were told by a judge that they can say "no" to certain pills. And lawmakers in Missouri are attempting to pass a law that would restrict these same medicines.
What are we talking about? Viagra, maybe? I mean, if you can't get an erection by yourself, maybe that's God's way of letting you know that you're done with sex.
Cholesterol drugs? Well, if I saw that you were 300 pounds overweight, I might tell you that cholesterol drugs aren't going to save you from your gluttony and you should just take your punishment?
Pain relievers? No, God clearly wants you to be in pain, so just suck it up.
No. Of course, these are not the drugs we're talking about.
Two years ago, I wrote a long piece about Plan B contraception, otherwise known as the "morning after pill." Until President Obama came into power, you could not buy the morning after pill if you were younger than eighteen. (Under President Bush, you couldn't buy it at all for the longest time, until the FDA finally said okay. Once again, politics trumped science, until science finally pushed back.)
In my earlier piece, I reported my own use of the morning after pill. So, let's be clear, shall we, on what we are talking about? The morning after pill is not RU-486, which is taken several weeks into a pregnancy and is intended to induce an abortion.
The morning-after pill is exactly what it sounds like. It is a high dose of regular birth control pills, taken within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse, that prevents implantation. In that respect, it works just like an IUD.
And, for rape or incest victims, the morning after pill is often the only remedy to prevent the additional punishment of being impregnated by your attacker. But don't let facts get in your way, dear pharmacists.
In how many small towns are women facing down the only pharmacist in town who has decided that women who are sexual do not deserve to make a decision about their own bodies? Are there morals clauses that allow a pharmacist to refuse to dispense Viagra? Or is this just about punishing women, again?
Same bullshit, different day.
Here's a clue: you are a pharmacist. I respect that you went to school for as long as I did and now make twice my salary. Average starting salaries are:
CVS / Pharmacy$70,000 - $115,642Walgreen Co.$82,424 - $104,176Rite Aid Pharmacy$70,337 - $113,200Walgreen's Pharmacy$68,784 - $99,442CVS Caremark Corporation$93,750 - $124,646So, somehow, you think your education and your salary allows you to play priest. That's the only conclusion I can draw about a pharmacist who thinks that s/he knows better than the medical professionals and the women who make these decisions every day.
Pharmacists do not get to make moral decisions for their clients. If they feel that they cannot dispense the drugs that they are required by law to do so, then get the fuck out of the industry.
And, while you're at it, get the fuck out of my uterus.
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It is all called Control. Control of womens bodies.....
rated with love
It seems to me that a pharmacist who refuses to give out contraception should perhaps have to pay child support.
Or maybe we can require parental consent to have sex, no?
-R-
I don't go to church to get pills, and I don't go to the pharmacy to get a sermon or moral BS. If a pharmacist can't dispense my legal prescribed medications without imposing their own narrow morality, they don't belong behind that counter!
r. for the righteous indignation.
We have a Walgreens in our town where my wife and I do business. By some circumstance, the pharmacists are conservative moralizers. With a particular drug, I wanted to know about any drug interaction with an ocasional cocktail. The Pharmacists face went pale, she left the window and the head pharmacist came to my window: "Sir, consumption of alchohol is bad for your liver!"
I was incredulous: "I'm not asking for a sermon, I would like for you to answer my question." At that moment, I heard one of the other pharmacists at the drive up window say to the person outside in the car, "Remember, only 10 more days 'til Lent."
Whoooa, for a moment I thought I was in the late 90's, in a Blockbuster....
"Are there morals clauses that allow a pharmacist to refuse to dispense Viagra? Or is this just about punishing women, again? "
Why don't you see this as punishing men as well?
♥R
but if you are compelled to do business, can't you be compelled to charge a particular price? what if your pharmacist told you "we have the pill, our price is $1000 per pack." would you demand a lower price?
how much lower?
No we won't sell you protection either if we had our way.
But we don't want the gummit interfering in our lives!
:-) / R
Gary--I found your story compelling. I can't imagine what it's like to live in a town so small that you only have one choice. Too much power.
I also agree with you all in seeing this as an issue about control. You can't oppose abortion and birth control. If you want to reduce abortion, then allow women to practice family planning with no interference.
Don't even get me started on the defunding of Planned Parenthood.
cowardice as their constituency.
Fortunately you can change your legislator occassionally,
but not your street level pharmacist, unless you are well-off.
Thank Heavens I only have toxic bullshit psychiatric drugs
to pick up at WalMart. I am part of an exploding industry,
I keep the wheels of the commercial pharmo-industrial Complex turning. Some of my drugs actually work: that is Capitalism.
Go into a pharmacy and try buying smokes without a tax. Good luck.
Try buying many medicines without a prescription. Good luck.
Try, in some states, buying sodas without a tax. Good luck.
At least in the case YOU mention, you can try to find another pharmacy, but for the smoker, the drinker, the person who doesn't want to make - or can't afford - a doctor's visit, no such luck.
No one denies you the right to buy cigarettes, soda, or liquor. Once again, you are comparing apples to oranges. When pharmacists refuse to give out Plan B contraception, price is not a consideration. Tax is not a consideration. Access to the product in question is the issue, and none of the things you have mentioned are denied to people solely on the basis of gender.
You might have been amused if you'd seen the steam coming out of my ears when I read your post. I'm not surprised - I've read too many stories of this sort. I AM infuriated.
Actually, I think you're aiming a bit low. These pharmacists have declared themselves God (or gods, as you prefer) not priests. The level of arrogance is that high.
Pharmacists are in business, but they are also healthcare providers. While I respect the right of someone in their position to not personally provide a service they consider immoral (e.g., dispensing an abortion pill such as RU-486) they do still have a duty of care. That duty adds up to referring a patient to another provider who will provide the service. THEY DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO PREVENT THE PATIENT FROM RECEIVING THAT SERVICE.
I'm from Canada. Last year, a a physician interviewed on a medical current affairs show on CBC ("White Coat, Black Art") said that she would not feel comfortable providing an abortion, "but I would always refer." That's the middle ground that respects the patient's need for care.
My chosen media may be biased, but there seems to be a rising tide of misogynistic legislation in the United States. While the justification is protection of the unborn, the real effect - and quite possibly, the conscious motivation behind this lawmaking - is the control and subjugation of women.
Get the fuck out of our uteruses, indeed.
Excellent post.
Rated.
Before non-smoking restaurants became law, my restaurants were non-smoking. It was my choice. Your choice was to go someplace else.
If you don't like what they do then I guess you will just have to go with plan B. You don't get to decide how a private business runs or establish their employee policies which allow them to not dispense the drug if they have a problem with it. If people refuse to go there because they disagree with what they do, then they will close their doors and go out of business.
It really IS similar. It is not apples to oranges. Do you, or not, think it wrong to impose taxes - which, like your restrictions make it harder to buy them - on cigs, alcohol, soda, etc.
By the way, a pharmacy is a private business and if it doesn't want to sell a person anything, including things I might want to buy (and the assumption that I am involved personally with the items I think should not be taxed is odd), it doesn't have to.
YOU are against restrictions on your product. Okay.. Are you against restrictions on other products THAT ONLY AFFECT ONE PERSON'S BODY?
Yes, or no? Try answering.
Do you favour taxing smoking?
Fat taxes?
Mandatory helmet laws?
Soda taxes?
Limiting breast implants?
The President's Council on Physical Fitness?
Spending tax dollars on healthy living programs?
Taxing alcohol?
Huh?
What a real liberal here at Salon? Wonders never cease. Here's to you.
I suppose that's true. What I'm really hoping will happen, as thefuddler mentioned, is that pharmacists who refuse to practice their CHOSEN profession (since you're so big on choice) will have their licenses revoked. Don't like what the job entails? Then find another one.
I have Navy (meaning socialized) healthcare as a dependent, and at age 18, I went to the Navy pharmacy to get a dose of Plan B. Which I had done once before. Never had a problem. The pharmacist I had was very helpful and was about to get it for me, but the head of the pharmacy overheard our conversation and said "No, absolutely nothing without a prescription" I told her that Plan B is an exception at every pharmacy because it is time-sensitive. She said "Nothing without a prescription". Then the pharmacist I had ACTUALLY SHOWED HER THE SECTION ON PLAN B IN THE PHARMACY REGULATIONS saying that she could, in fact, give me Plan B. This sent the manager into a power trip and she overruled her. I told her I didn't have $50 in my pocket to go to CVS with. My pharmacist was getting upset at this point, so she pulled off her lab coat, came out from behind the counter, pulled me aside and whispered that I had to go to the ER, there was nothing she could do as a subordinate of this crazy woman. I ended up having to sit in the ER for 8 hours. The doctor laughed about the whole thing when he finally saw me and it only took him about 5 minutes to give me a piss test and write a prescription. I spent an entire day at the hospital all because a FEMALE pharmacy manager ignored her own regulations to avoid giving a young woman Plan B. I had no revenge other than ripping her on my facebook staus.
Good job.
Yes, but that is true only if the scientist takes the Embryological point of view. If he or she takes the Genetic one, we have a different picture.
See: Developmental Biology, Scott F. Gilbert
http://8e.devbio.com/article.php?id-162
But, really, on this issue a shop of any kind should be free to carry or not carry what they wish. If a store of any type does not carry, say, tobacco products - the owner believing them to be immoral and/or dangerous and/or unhealthy - he should have the right not to carry them. We still have the right to buy legal products such as what this writer wants to buy, but it doesn't mean a free individual who owns a shop or dispenses something is compelled to do so.
And, by the way, since from what is written above, it appears there is ANOTHER pharmacist in the shop who will sell the product, what is the beef? Does the writer wish the pharmacist who will not (sell) be compelled to go against his or her conscience? Do we really want to go there as a nation? Do people really want to force people to go against their conscience on such matters? You all won't like it when this comes round to bite you.
BTW, if drugs that are currently illegal ever become legal, I hope stores that are not comfortable selling them will not be compelled to do so.
Oh well. You still don't have the right to compel people to sell what they don't want. You'll have to find another store. If there is a market for this "drug", you'll find a legal seller.
And to the comment-writer who suggested Catholic hospitals also not be immune from compulsion to do this or that if it is against their beliefs. What ya gonna do? Hold a gun and make a doctor perform an abortion?
If a Catholic hospital takes no public funds (which they'd be wise to do in order to ensure their freedom), and you don't like what they offer (or don't), move on. Don't give them your business. They can decide to change to GET your business or decide to do without your business. That is kinda how it works in a free and liberal society.