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Thursday, April 13, 2006

Pastor Niemoller looks more correct every day
Posted by Jill | 5:53 PM

First they came for the emergency contraception, but I did not need emergency contraception, so I was not concerned....

Then they came for birth control pills, but I do not use birth control pills, so I was not concerned....

Now lunatic pharmacists are refusing to fill prescriptions for antibiotics and vitamins:

Cedar River Clinics, a women's health and abortion provider with facilities in Renton, Tacoma, and Yakima, filed a complaint with the Washington State Department of Health this week alleging three instances where pharmacists raising moral objections refused to fill prescriptions for Cedar River clients. The complaint includes one incident at the Swedish Medical Center outpatient pharmacy in Seattle. According to the complaint, someone at the Swedish pharmacy said she was "morally unable" to fill a Cedar River patient's prescription for abortion-related antibiotics. Cedar River's complaint quotes its Renton clinic manager's May 17, 2005, e-mail account: "Today, one of our clients asked us to call in her prescription... to Swedish outpatient pharmacy. [We] called the prescription in... and spoke with an efficient staff person who took down the prescription. A few minutes later, this pharmacy person called us back and told us she had found out who we were and she morally was unable to fill the prescription." (Cedar River thinks their client eventually got her prescription filled.)
[snip]

The complaint also includes an incident from November 2005 in Yakima, in which a pharmacist at a Safeway reportedly refused to fill a Cedar River patient's prescription for pregnancy-related vitamins. The pharmacist reportedly asked the customer why she had gone to Cedar River Clinics and then told the patient she "didn't need them if she wasn't pregnant."

[snip]

"Pharmacists should not be able to elevate their personal beliefs over the needs of the patient," says Amy Luftig, deputy director of public policy at Planned Parenthood Network of Washington. Luftig offered several anecdotes of refusal stories—including one of a young couple seeking emergency contraception in the Central District who were lectured by the pharmacist about sex—but says most women are too embarrassed or stigmatized to go public with a complaint like the one Cedar River filed on behalf of its clients.


This is not even remotely about the sanctity of human life and about pharmacists not wanting to fill prescriptions for drugs they believe kill human beings (though even that should not be their decision to make). This is about pharmacists deciding they can punish women who have abortions by denying them antibiotics they need after the procedure, or even vitamins that pregnant women who utilize abortion providers for routine prenatal care may need.

And this is the kind of lunacy that happens when you allow religious fanatics into the government. By this logic, Christian Scientist pharmacists can refuse to fill prescriptions for ANY medications at all. Catholic pharmacists can refuse to give women diaphragms. Scientologist pharmacists can refuse to fill prescriptions for antidepressants.

If you can't fill prescriptions, don't be a pharmacist. It's very simple.

(Hat tip: Radical Russ at Pam's House Blend).
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