Pharmacists and Birth Control

[mystic]

According to an April 14 CNN.com article, House and Senate backers have unveiled a bill dubbed the Access to Legal Pharmaceuticals Act (ALPhA), which would allow a pharmacist to refuse to fill a prescription only if the prescription can be passed to and filled by a co-worker at the same pharmacy. The article goes on to say that according to NARAL Pro-Choice America, a reproductive rights group, legislators in 10 states are considering bills that would permit pharmacists to refuse to fill birth control prescriptions. The article also says that a federal law, if passed, would pre-empt any state law. I don't know what legislators in the 10 States are considering, but my guess is the federal bill is trying to take the middle ground on this issue.

Will such laws for pharmacists encourage workers in other occupations to demand employment rights consistent with their ethical or religious beliefs?

[karl k]

According to an April 14 CNN.com article, House and Senate backers have unveiled a bill dubbed the Access to Legal Pharmaceuticals Act (ALPhA), which would allow a pharmacist to refuse to fill a prescription only if the prescription can be passed to and filled by a co-worker at the same pharmacy. The article goes on to say that according to NARAL Pro-Choice America, a reproductive rights group, legislators in 10 states are considering bills that would permit pharmacists to refuse to fill birth control prescriptions. The article also says that a federal law, if passed, would pre-empt any state law. I don't know what legislators in the 10 States are considering, but my guess is the federal bill is trying to take the middle ground on this issue.

Will such laws for pharmacists encourage workers in other occupations to demand employment rights consistent with their ethical or religious beliefs?

Doctors that won't perform abortions, Walmart won't sell certain CD's or DVD's because of content, "no shoes, no shirt, no service", first network content was/is under attack, now cable/sat content is too racey! I remember when the "Last Temptation of Christ was removed from cable broadcast on Cablevision systems!

Pharmacists didn't start it... and I'm sure they won't be the end of it either.

I think Bill Maher said it best in the "New Rules" a couple weeks ago...

And finally, New Rule: Pharmacists have to fill prescriptions. As our audience seems to already know, more and more American pharmacists are refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control because of their personal moral objections. Hey, you know what would really teach us a lesson? If you took off your pretend doctor jacket and got another job.

Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe cutting off the pill doesn't even go far enough. Yeah, it's high time activist drugstores stopped coddling sluts on every aisle. Let's not sell any more makeup either. A good woman doesn't paint herself. And no more deodorant. You should smell bad. Keep the boys from getting ideas. And no suntan lotion. I've seen what happens at the MTV Beach House, you whore. You want to avoid melanoma, buy a veil.

Why is this country becoming Utah?! You know, I know the conservatives are always saying that the coastal elites don't really get it about them because we just fly over. Okay, maybe. But, you know what? You guys don't get us either. We need to f**k. Refusal to provide birth control threatens our economy and our very way of life here in Southern California. There's a lot of hot chicks out here, man. We need birth control! I mean, seriously, how do you think movies get made?

Now, of course, I know the other side is saying, yes, but this is a moral issue. Yeah, but the problem is, not everyone gets their morals from the same book. You go by the book that says slavery is okay but sex is wrong until after marriage, at which point it becomes a blessed sacrament between a husband and the wife who is withholding it.

In conclusion, let me say to all the activist pharmacists out there, the ones who think sex is bad probably because sex with them always is. Fellas, a pharmacist is not a law-giver, not even a doctor. In the medical pecking order, you rank somewhere in between a chiropractor and a tree surgeon.

You don't answer to a law above the laws of men. You work for Sav-On. The doctors are the ones who make medical decisions because they went to medical school, whereas you were transferred from the counter where people drop off film.

My addition...

Leave the private decisions between a Dr and their patient to those who can respect that privacy... unconditionally.

[kexodusc]

Doctors that won't perform abortions, Walmart won't sell certain CD's or DVD's because of content, "no shoes, no shirt, no service", first network content was/is under attack, now cable/sat content is too racey! I remember when the "Last Temptation of Christ was removed from cable broadcast on Cablevision systems!

Pharmacists didn't start it... and I'm sure they won't be the end of it either.

I think Bill Maher said it best in the "New Rules" a couple weeks ago...

And finally, New Rule: Pharmacists have to fill prescriptions. As our audience seems to already know, more and more American pharmacists are refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control because of their personal moral objections. Hey, you know what would really teach us a lesson? If you took off your pretend doctor jacket and got another job.

Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe cutting off the pill doesn't even go far enough. Yeah, it's high time activist drugstores stopped coddling sluts on every aisle. Let's not sell any more makeup either. A good woman doesn't paint herself. And no more deodorant. You should smell bad. Keep the boys from getting ideas. And no suntan lotion. I've seen what happens at the MTV Beach House, you whore. You want to avoid melanoma, buy a veil.

Why is this country becoming Utah?! You know, I know the conservatives are always saying that the coastal elites don't really get it about them because we just fly over. Okay, maybe. But, you know what? You guys don't get us either. We need to f**k. Refusal to provide birth control threatens our economy and our very way of life here in Southern California. There's a lot of hot chicks out here, man. We need birth control! I mean, seriously, how do you think movies get made?

Now, of course, I know the other side is saying, yes, but this is a moral issue. Yeah, but the problem is, not everyone gets their morals from the same book. You go by the book that says slavery is okay but sex is wrong until after marriage, at which point it becomes a blessed sacrament between a husband and the wife who is withholding it.

In conclusion, let me say to all the activist pharmacists out there, the ones who think sex is bad probably because sex with them always is. Fellas, a pharmacist is not a law-giver, not even a doctor. In the medical pecking order, you rank somewhere in between a chiropractor and a tree surgeon.

You don't answer to a law above the laws of men. You work for Sav-On. The doctors are the ones who make medical decisions because they went to medical school, whereas you were transferred from the counter where people drop off film.

My addition...

Leave the private decisions between a Dr and their patient to those who can respect that privacy... unconditionally.

Well said by both Bill and Karl!!!
People need to get their own affairs in order before imposing their beliefs on others.
Besides, have you seen some of the people procreating these days? Do we really want to limit access to birth-control?

[shokhead]

And thats the root of our problems, imposing their beliefs on others. When someone does that,it makes me even more against their beliefs.

[piece-it pete]

So, a Doctor disagrees with you on abortion , won't do it, but because YOU think it's ok you'll throw him in jail?

A pharmacist disagrees about whatever, you don't go to another like-minded one, you have them fired? Land of the free indeed.

It sounds to me like you'all are forcing YOUR beliefs on THEM.

Pete

[paul_pci]

So, a Doctor disagrees with you on abortion , won't do it, but because YOU think it's ok you'll throw him in jail?

A pharmacist disagrees about whatever, you don't go to another like-minded one, you have them fired? Land of the free indeed.

It sounds to me like you'all are forcing YOUR beliefs on THEM.

Pete

Good luck with this illogic. No one, at no time has threatened to jail a pharmacist or doctor for NOT performing their job. No where in that dynamic is one side forcing a belief on another side. But conervatives HAVE threatened jail for doctors who perform certain kinds of abortions, for instance. Get your facts straight and learn to how to critically analyze rhetoric before you offfer us an thoughtless, kneejerk reaction.

Firing a pharmacist who refused to do his or her job is consistent with the land of the free, my cliche-ridden friend. No one, let me say this louder for the rhetorically deaf, NO ONE is entitled to their chosen job, whether in a free nation or in an unfree nation. A pharmacist, much like any service oriented retail job, when accepting his/her position, agrees to serve the public. No individual can selectively choose which portions of the public they serve. Either you serve the public or you don't; there is no inbetween (and please don't point out irrelevant exceptions of violent or disruptive customers). If the pharmacist, or plumber for that matter, cannot serve the entire public due to personal convictions, however rational or irrational they may be, should find another profession whereby their personal convictions are not in conflict with making a living.