Pharmacist Refuses to Dispense BC Pills-Religion

[luaneryder]

Link: www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20040729-148612.shtml


A Fabens (TX) pharmacy owner is one of hundreds of pharmacists worldwide who are refusing to dispense medically prescribed birth control pills for religious or ethical reasons.

"Since this was in the news, I've gotten calls from people who are upset with me and others who see no problem with it," said pharmacist Steve Mosher, who owns the Medicine Shoppe in Fabens. "Some people are even blaming me for teen pregnancies in Fabens."

Mosher, a Christian, said he dispensed birth control pills until last fall, when he listened to a medical expert on a radio program who described "the pill" as an abortifacient -- a drug that destroys a fertilized egg's ability to survive in the womb.

"I had waffled over this for years, but I've since stopped dispensing them," he said. "It was also a financial issue, and I've lost a lot of business because of my conviction. I fill some prescriptions for the pill, as long as it is used for menopause or other medical reasons besides birth control. I don't carry the 'morning-after' pill or anything like that."

[meegbear]

1. What's next?

denying people drugs for fighting AIDS because they must have contracted it through their "immoral lifestyle"?

[serryjw]

54. I love your dancing condom!

I don't get it. The f*cken drug companies are all republicans....why are they allowing this to happen? It will put a major crimp in their business?

[mountainvue]

60. I wouldn't doubt it.

This guy is 100% convinced he's doing God's will.

[MichaelHarris]

2. real easy to put someone like that out of business

look up all the physicians in that area, send a flyer to all of them describing his actions. No physicians calling in prescriptions, no income, out of business.

[Warpy]

8. Right, I doubt he'll get far only filling "Christian" prescriptions

Nobody with that sort of religious baggage should be in any job in health care. We don't get to pick and choose patients, and we don't get to pick and choose what they're getting treatment for. Mainly, no pharmacist should ever second guess a doctor unless the prescription dosage is wrong, and then there should be a phone call to clarify the prescription.

Birth control pills are prescribed for conditions other than preventing pregnancy, not that it's any of his business. In any case, a pharmacist should know how they act, and it's not by aborting a fetus. This utter moron should be driven out of business ASAP. He's a danger to the community.

[luaneryder]

9. Another point is that the diagnosis

is not on an RX, so he's either asking the patient what the pills are being prescribed for or calling the physician. Either way it seems that a pharmicist asking for a diagnosis is an invasion of privacy and none of his business.

[neebob]

3. Then don't be a pharmacist, Asshole

Somehow it's OK to dispense stuff that makes people psychotic and destroys their organs and stuff, but not stuff that prevents a little fertilized egg from implanting itself. I'm so sick of these people I could just scream.

[silverlib]

4. About Fabens, Texas...

I just googled, as I had never heard of this town.

Here's what I found. I doubt that people who live here have alternative pharmacies, which gives the asshole way too much power.

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/FF/hgf1.html

<snip>FABENS, TEXAS. Fabens is located on the Southern Pacific Railroad and State Highway 20 a mile southwest of Interstate Highway 10 and twenty-five miles southeast of downtown El Paso in southeastern El Paso County

.....

<snip>In the summer of 1969 the University of Notre Dame sociology and anthropology department conducted a community study of Fabens. The study, published in 1970, called the town "basically unattractive," and noted that more than 40 percent of the families in Fabens were poor. Five-sixths of the local farms were owned by non-Hispanic whites, and virtually all the laborers on those farms were Hispanic.

edited to add that the population, at last count, was less than 6,000.

edited again because I didn't spell check the last edit (duh).

[AngryOldDem]

10. He Should Just Do His Job!

When someone shows up with a legally written prescription for a legally classified medication, it is the pharmacist's job to fill it. Period. It is not his business why this drug has been prescribed, nor is it his business to ask (which the guy apparently must do if he makes exceptions for menopause, etc.). And it is certainly NOT within his job description to impose his moral beliefs on customers who are only there to conduct a normal business transaction, and have the money in their wallets to prove it.

This is happening all over. Another big one a few months back was at an Eckerd's, also in Texas, I believe. Another pharmacist made a show over his opposition to birth control by not filling prescriptions either. Eckerd's fired this guy for (surprise) violating company policy. Of course, he whined about his "religious beliefs" being compromised, and that he was only trying to "avoid" being complicit in "sin." Tough. Another reason why you need to read the employee handbook before you agree to take the job. Also, if this was such a big deal to him, he shouldn't have signed on with a chain pharmacy in the first place.

These people need to find someone else who will fill these prescriptions, open their own BC-free shops, or just get the hell out of the business altogether.

[Southpaw Bookworm]

11. In the Eckerd's case

The pharm's actions were even more disgusting because the prescription was for morning-after pills for a rape victim.

[AngryOldDem]

14. You're Right...

...it was for the morning-after pill for a rape victim. Thanks for that very important fact.

I got into a rather heated discussion about this case a few months back with a bunch of rather brain-dead Catholic women. Their basic argument was (in addition to promoting the pharm for sainthood) that the customer could just as easily take her business elsewhere or come back at another time. Say WHAT?

So the customer -- in this case a rape victim -- should inconvenience herself and waste valuable time because the pharmacist has a Messiah complex.

I was glad to hear Eckerd's canned him. Also if memory serves, he had been working with them for a few years, and knew all along that they dispensed BC. All the more reason to know your company's policy as it concerns customer service.

As a sop I conceded the point to these women that perhaps conscience clauses are the answer to this problem. But still, nothing should get in the way of a legal business transaction, as filling a prescription most definitely is, especially in the case of a rape victim.

[keep_left]

27. This is the latest thing with crazy far-right fundies.

The "Catholic" EWTN and Opus Dei types have had a conscious agenda for a long time to peel off the craziest of the crazy from the fundie movement and convert them to 13th-century Catholicism. It has a whipsaw effect on those who remain Protestant fundies, who naturally want to be more-fundie-than-thou. Now there are people in the fundie movement who talk just like the crazies on EWTN. Randall Terry, the founder of Operation Rescue, was one of them (before he got kicked out of his own movement for repeated extramarital affairs and embezzlement). Terry was always going off about the evils of birth control.

I should add that they're being pretty smart about how they're doing this. If you check out some of the stuff that James Dobson (Focus on the Family) puts out, his stuff only mentions contraception obliquely. And on EWTN and the other far-right "Catholic" media, all mention of the evils of the Pill occurs at mid-morning, when only stay-at-home moms with 12 children are watching, or at 2 AM, when no one is watching. The people at EWTN aren't too bright, but they know that they would have an audience of three--worldwide--if they yelled about this in prime time.

Mark my words--this is a frog in the pan of heated water approach to public policy. And it's highly organized.

[mountainvue]

61. They have to drive to the Walgreens

in El Paso.

[Bettie]

5. These people are nuts

Religion has become so distasteful recently.

"Christianity" used to mean people who were generally committed to making the world a better and kinder place to live. The poor (the least among us) were to be taken care of and helped, either through religious charities or through state aid to help them through their hard times. The assumption was that every person would do their best, but that sometimes people needed some help.

Now, "Christianity" is a sect of mean-spirited, greedy people who feel the need to impose their vengeful godhead on every single person in the world. They cannot tolerate any belief that differs from their own and believe that the poor are poor because they choose that life.

Oh, and they vote based on who is the most vocal "Christian".

My grandfather used to tell me that the best place to find a hypocrite was in the front row at church on any Sunday.

Oh, I am so sick of it all.

[leesa]

6. So how many of these children is he willing to adopt and take into his

house?

[snippy]

7. This is happening more and more often.

A few States have passed laws making it illegal for an employer to fire a pharmacist who refuses to dispense birth control. The republican party would like to see such laws passed everywhere. Of course the Reich wing fundamentalist wing of the party would prefer to see birth control made illegal.

I think the democrats should find a way to make this a national issue. Moderate republicans need to realize just how fucking evil their party is becoming.

[myrna minx]

12. So he fancies himself a physician?

"I had waffled over this for years, but I've since stopped dispensing them," he said. "It was also a financial issue, and I've lost a lot of business because of my conviction. I fill some prescriptions for the pill, as long as it is used for menopause or other medical reasons besides birth control. I don't carry the 'morning-after' pill or anything like that."

Just how exactly does he diagnose who has menopause or who has a medical condition? By how a woman 'looks' when she is standing at his counter? How on earth does he justify his unqualified diagnoses? Do ya think he is playing god?

[LeftyLou]

13. greetings from rural America

The fact of the matter is that this guy is not as dangerous as he thinks he is. I live in a poor rural area and I can assure you this guy is not dispensing most of the birth control. Bi-weekly woman's health clinics (usually a P.A. who travels to several different towns) offer the lions share of exams and prescriptions here, kind of like a traveling Planned Parenthood. I don't know how these programs have survived the current administration, but I'm glad they have. The sad fact is that most women of reproductive age could not afford a traditional doctors visit or the price a pharmacy charges.

Others will simply travel to the nearest Walmart and have them filled there (that is as long as Walmart is dispensing birth control.)

The pharmacist sounds like alot of the small town types I deal with everyday. They make alot of noise, but really have very little effect. I'm sure he got a standing ovation at bible study.

Please remember there are sane progressive people out here in the sticks.

[myrna minx]

16. Welcome to DU, LeftyLou.

Thank you for pointing out all of the PA's who do travel from town to town providing this valuable service. :hi:

[WLKjr]

17. I know how that is too

I live in the sticks and people out here are good people, but culturally and world around them stupid, And I don't mean that in a meanspirated way either.

[newyawker99]

21. Hi LeftyLou!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[AngryOldDem]

35. But Is Women's Health Care Really Safe?

The kinds of programs that you describe could very well be at risk, and not from the government, if this is any indication:

At the top of the front page of the Metro section of my newspaper this morning, there is a story about my county being pressured by a handful of pro-lifers to cut funding for Planned Parenthood. PP is asking for a share (roughly $65,000) of money from a human services levy. (PP has received funds from this levy since 2000.) The pro-lifers are arguing that no public money should be used by PP, because of PP's attitude toward abortion, despite the fact that it does not do abortions here, nor does it pay to have them done elsewhere. (Not coincidentally, a local Right to Life official is running for a county commission seat against a well-known pro-choice opponent. Once again, abortion is being used as a wedge issue. Right now, the commissioners seem to be split on the issue.)

So...if these people are successful, who loses? Poor women, for starters, who use PP for health exams, cancer screenings, pregnancy tests, medications, and other concerns. "For a lot of these low-income women," says someone at PP, "we are the only doctor they see." Other losers are teens, because part of the money would go to fund pregnancy-prevention programs.

It seems the right-to-lifers are upset that PP includes **all** alternatives to pregnancy, including abortion, and offers contraceptives to teens, as well as programs about safe sex.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I find it not surprising, though, that those who are the most vocal in their opposition to PP seem to have no plan of their own to help out those women and teens who will be hurt if PP does not get its money. But for some in the pro-life crowd, women's health is always a mere afterthought anyway.

Just wanted to throw this out to show that not even basic health care is safe from this "pro-life" mindset.

[FlaGranny]

50. Well, AngryOldDem,

the reason that these people have no plan to help out these women and teens is that they don't want to and don't intend to help them. They don't CARE about them - pure and simple. They have no compassion for the living beings already on the planet.

[AngryOldDem]

59. My Point Exactly,

which is what pisses me off about most pro-lifers.

I'm becoming more pro-choice with each passing day, and the Right to Life movement is a BIG reason why.

[OneBlueSky]

15. here's my prediction for the next step by the nutcases . . .

pretty soon they'll be picketing pharmacies that DO fill prescriptions for bc pills . . . just watch . . .

[GOPisEvil]

18. His job is not to pass moral judgements.

His job is do dispense legally available medications. If he can't serve EVERYONE, he should get out of the business.

[cally]

19. He based this decision on a radio program!

He listens to radio show and listens to the 'medical expert.' He should lose his license for this. No medical practioner should make decisions based on a radio show.

[napi21]

20. I don't agree with this pharmacist, but I guess he has the right

to abide by his own beliefs. You know there are many many Doctors who would not perform an abortion, and I accept that as their ethical decision. I would say however, that this pharmacist as well as any others will survive, or not, based upon his decisions of how to run a business. Even if he is the only game in town, if he goes out of business, someone else will take his place.

The scary part of all of this is those same decisions could be made on filling prescriptions for opiate pain killers (might cause addiction), Viagra (it interferes with nature), and many other weird ideas that can creep into an individual's mind.

[in_cog_ni_to]

22. Time to buy BC online. REPORT HIS ASS!

That man should LOSE HIS LICENSE!!!!!!!! Where do we report this son-of-a-bitch? Don't they have to take an oathe...like doctors do? Damn....these people are friggin' NUTS!

[Heddi]

23. BIRTH CONTROL IS NOT AN ABORTIFACIENT....

it does NOT destroy a fertilized egg's ability to survive in the womb.

This fucking pharmacist should KNOW this---he went to fucking PHARMACY SCHOOL...I would hope that such a courseload would include at least INTRODUCTORY Human Anatomy & Physiology classes.

I haven't even STARTED my nursing degree program, and *I* know, having only taken two 200-level Anatomy/Physiology classes, that BIRTH CONTROL PILLS ARE NOT ABORTIFACIENTS...

Even if he DID NOT have to take an A&P class (which I would find very disturbing as one cannot know the full effects of a medication on the body unless one equally knows how the body 'works'), he needs only to do a google search and enter the terms "how does birth control pills work" and he will get a PLETHORA of information about what birth control pills do and how they work....but why do that when some no-name expert appears on a radio talk-show? :wtf:

---



http://kidshealth.org/teen/sexual_health/contraception/contraception_birth.html

How Does It Work?

Most birth control pills contain the combination of the hormones estrogen and progesterone to prevent ovulation (the release of an egg during the monthly cycle). If a woman doesn't ovulate she cannot get pregnant because there is no egg to be fertilized.
---


http://www.metrokc.gov/health/famplan/birthcontrol/

Birth control pills, often called "The Pill", are pills that a woman takes daily to prevent pregnancy. They are made of hormones similar to those found naturally in a woman's body. The Pill works mainly by preventing the ovary from releasing an egg.

---

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/bc/YOU_AND_PILL.HTM

Combination pills usually work by preventing a woman's ovaries from releasing eggs (ovulation). Progestin-only pills also can prevent ovulation. But they usually work by thickening the cervical mucus. This keeps sperm from joining with an egg. Combination pills also thicken cervical mucus.


---
http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/0663.html

irth control pills fool the body into acting as if it's pregnant. Birth control pills, also called oral contraceptives (OCs), come in two forms: the combined OC, a combination of two synthetic hormones, estrogen and progestin; and, the minipill, which consists solely of progestin. Combined OCs are more commonly used, though both kinds are available through health care providers. The combination pill prevents ovulation by suppressing the natural hormones in the body that would stimulate the ovary to release an egg. By taking this estrogen throughout the month, you insure that no egg will be developed or released for that cycle. Progestin thickens the cervical mucus, hindering the movement of sperm. Progestin also prevents the uterus's lining from developing normally; so, if an egg were fertilized, implantation is unlikely.

------------

This guy is, in all honesty, a fucking moron. His license should be revoked NOT because he's not filling medications that were prescribed by a licensed physician for medical reasons unknown to the pharmacist. His license should be revoked because he does not know BASIC HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY and equally does not know how these medications act in the body.

He thinks birth control pills are an abortifacient? he's wrong. Not just a little wrong, but ALOT wrong. SOME pills will SOMETIMES prevent SOME implatation of a fertilized egg. MOST pills prevent OVULATION. A mature oocyte (egg) is released during ovulation. If there is no OVULATION, then there can be NO FERTILIZATION (as an immature egg can't be fertilized). If there is no FERTILIZATION, then there can be NO CONCEPTION. There can be NO IMPLANTATION to the uterine wall if there is no fertilization either. THEREFORE---NO OVULATION MEANS THAT THRERE IS NO IMPLANTATION WHICH MEANS THAT IN NO WAY IS AN ABORTION TAKING PLACE.

I would really worry about any other medical 'misconceptions' regarding medications he may have. If he doesn't know enough about a routinely prescribed, low side effect, low contraindication medication such as birth control pills to know that they're not abortifacents, then I really question his knowledge on other less frequently prescribed, high incident of contraindications, high incident of side effects, and high frequency of being ineffective or differently effective when used in combination with other medications or therapies.

He is medically incompitent and unable to do his job successfully if he has this lack of understanding about ONE medicine---what else is he so "confused" about?

What other medical knowledge has he learned from listening to talk shows and no-name medical authorities????

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

29. But people like him don't care one bit about the facts

It's just like when you see the groups with all the pictures of late-term abortions. They don't care that doctors only perform them when it is necessary to protect the life or health of the mother, and that they are otherwise illegal in every state. In my state, they've had exactly two of these performed in the last 20 years since they started keeping records, and it was for children who were wanted, but could not survive because of grievous defects.

They want to lie to people. They have been lying about contraception for years and it is because the anti-choice groups do not believe in contraception and will try to get rid of it just as they are trying to get rid of abortion.

[Heddi]

39. He's a pharmacist--he is REQUIRED to know the facts about medicine.

It's part of his licensure.

I could give one whit about pro-lifers standing on street corners with pictures of dead babies---90% of the time, the pictures they show are of infants who were STILLBORN or who died shortly after birth, NOT because of abortions*


However, this man is a LICENSED PHARMACIST. That means he has to take an approved course (graduate-level courses) and take an exam to show PROFECIENCY to be licensed in any state. State licenses do not 'travel' from state to state. They are granted by each individual state, and one must take the test in every state they wish to be licensed in.

I'm sure that, like MD's and Nurses, Pharmacists take a 'standardized' proficiency test and the knowledge you have to know in Texas is the same stuff you have to know in New York.

So obviously this man was well educated. I'm most certain that his education, considering that it was a Pharmacy program, stressed the differences in medications--steriods, NSAIDs, anti-inflamatory, antibiotics, contraceptives, abortifacents, beta blockers...

All of those medicines are different. They all interact with the body in different ways. They target organs and systems and metabolism and hormones in different ways.

The sheer FACT that this PHARMACIST (not a tech, not a student, not an intern--a LICENSED PHARMACIST) doesn't understand the difference, or chooses to ignore the difference between a CONTRACEPTIVE PILL and an ABORTIFACENT makes me question what other medical facts he chooses to forget, or forgets to remember. What other medicines has he 'confused' with being another type?

I mean, I hope he knows that certain drugs are blood thinners, while other drugs are corticosteriods. Both do very different things, just like contraceptive pills and abortifacents do very different things.

I mean, the simple MEDICAL TERMINOLGY should clue him in:

Contraceptive:

Contra: against
Ceptive: fertilization, conception

Abortifacent:
Aborti: pertaining to abortion
Facent: ? (I don't know what this means, but I would assume it means to induce, or bring on).

This is BASIC MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE. If he, a PHARMACIST, who should KNOW the difference in classes of drugs and effects of drugs and actions of drugs, doesn't know the fucking difference between a contraceptive and an abortifacent, then he needs to have his license torn up and thrown away.

Look--I don't agree with him not filling the Rx regardless of the reasons (other than if it was a medication error on the part of the Dr that would have caused death or serious harm to the patient). If he refused to fill based on religious, ethical, or moral reasons---well, he's got a problem and he needs to learn to separate his job from his morals and leave the prescribing up to the doctor and the patient. I wouldn't reccomend that his license be revoked necessarily for that, however. I would reccomend that perhaps he work at a catholic or other religious hospital that already has their own policies in place regarding contraceptive AND abortifacent medicines and the situations in which they will be dispensed to patients.

HOWEVER--he's not just refusing to fill on those grounds. He says that he heard on the radio (such a vaulable source of air-tight medical information, that) that Birth Control Pills are abortifacents---meaning, that they produce spontaneous abortion.

BUT THEY DON'T, and he, being a pharmacist should know that just as well as a Dr or Nurse does.

Contraceptives prevent OVULATION and in SOME...some cases allow for ovulation but prevent implatation of fertlized ovum to the uterine wall. It's a quite simple concept that this man just doesn't get.

BECAUSE OF THAT--because of his WILLFUL lack of understanding of medicine that is IMPERATIVE for him to do his job. BECAUSE he doesn't have understading to the classes and actions of drugs, he is NOT FIT to be a pharmacist and dispense drugs per his licensure. THAT is why his license should be revoked...

what an asshole this guy is. a terribly incompetent unprofessional asshole.




*I should clarify that I do give a whit, and quite a few of them, about the anti-abortion crowd. They're vile, manipulative, and are given far too much power and leeway in this country. However, with regards to this pharmacist and this article, the pro-lifers aren't the issue at hand.

[keep_left]

24. "Other medical reasons besides birth control"?! WTF?!

If they're sexually active, the contraception is still going to work, even if they're taking it to regulate their cycle, etc. Hello?? Anyone home??

This guy is a moron. He's taken action on his "moral outrage", yet doesn't even have his act together on his own moral position!

[DrWeird]

25. remove his license.

nt

[Mandate My Ass]

26. Yes and afterward

sue him civilly for discrimination and criminally for illegally interfering in the doctor/patient relationship and adversely affecting the health of a patient.

[spanone]

28. Who does this ASSHOLE think he is?? Revoke His License.

[lolly]

30. Good Business opportunity for online drugstores

I'm surprised drugstore.com and other companies haven't taken better advantage of this.

If I were on their marketing committee, I'd have flyers posted in every small-town doctor's office and clinic. I'd take out ads specifically promising to honor all contraceptive prescriptions privately and conveniently.

Heck, I might even offer discounts on any OTHER prescriptions transferred to drugstore.com with any bc prescription. If Mr. Bible-thumper doesn't want to sell you your contraceptives, don't let him sell your dad his lovastatin or your daughter her albuterol.

Seems like a great way to build customer loyalty.

Hello? Drugstore.com? you listening?

[rocktivity]

31. Pull their licenses, then. Better yet, ARREST them

for practicing medicine without a license. They have neither the qualfications nor the right to override a doctor's recommendation. If their Chrisitianity is that important to them, they'll just have to find a line of work that suits it better.

:headbang:
rocknation

[AntiCoup2K4]

32. Seems clear that the guy doesn't know the difference between.....

...birth control pills and "morning after" pills. At least if it were a morning after pill he was refusing to prescribe, his rational would be a true statement, albeit a very weak one.

If a pharmacist doesn't know WHAT drugs do, he has no business prescribing them to anyone. Where did this fucknugget get his degree from anyway? Regent University???

[noonwitch]

33. Then find another pharmicist that will fill it, it can't be that hard

CVS/Walgreens/Rite Aid-there's one in every town. Meijer, K-Mart, etc., all have pharmacies. I don't know of any that won't provide birth control pills. Let him lose the business.

If RU486 is available, there will be more pharmicies that won't carry it. My guess is Walgreens, WalMart and Meijer won't carry it.

[lolly]

34. In Rural Areas, yes it can be

In a town with only a few thousand population, there may only be one drugstore for 20 - 30 miles. And what if the drugstore 30 miles away has another nutcase pharmacist and you take off work early to get there before it closes, and then you can't get it there either . . .

[LeftyLou]

43. I can see this happening to me

In rural areas many times there is just one pharmacy. I have had the option of waiting two days for them order a prescription or driving 50 miles to a larger town to have it filled. Many, many people do not have their prescriptions filled locally. They either cannot obtain the medicines cheaply enough or do not want people to know what conditions they are being treated for.

It's not as easy as driving a few miles out of our way here. We didn't even have a doctor within 30 miles for a few years and now the nearest obstetrician is 50 miles away. Trust me, it makes for some speed records being set on "the drive to the hospital."

[oldcoot]

36. It was hard for the woman in the article to get her pills

According to the article, this pharmacy is the only private pharmacy in Fabens. Idalia Moran had to drive to El Paso to get to a Walgreen's.

[AngryOldDem]

40. That's Not The Point, At Least To Me

I expect customer service; I don't expect to be told to take my business elsewhere because an employee has a personal problem with what I am there to buy. He is there to do a job -- fill prescriptions. If he can't separate his "moral convictions" from his job description, that's his issue, not mine. He has no idea why I was prescribed the drug; furthermore, it's none of his business.

You can bet, though, that the next time I have a prescription, I will NOT return to that particular store, and I would most certainly let store management (and everyone else) know why. But if I'm at the counter, I expect the prescription to be filled, no questions asked.

[StrongbadTehAwesome]

37. this is disgusting

When I first heard of any pharmacist refusing to fill a script on moral grounds, it was for the morning-after pill. Now it's been extended to regular BC pills? How far will this go?

If he personally doesn't want to be the one to fill a prescription for this stuff, fine, but the pharmacy should have another pharmacist who will. This guy should NOT be given the power to force his moral beliefs on an entire town (especially not when he bases his decisions on what people on the radio have to say)! It wouldn't be such a big deal in a larger town - just take your business elsewhere - but if this town is anything like my in-laws' hometown, there are many who can't afford to travel to the next town or get online to purchase their medicine from someone else.

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[oldcoot]

48. Exactly

"How far will this go?" is a very important and valid question. Today, this guy states that he will not provide birth control because of "information" he got off a radio show. What is to stop him from deciding that he will not provide some other drug in the future because of something he heard on the radio?

I agree that pharmacists should not have this much power over patients' lives. Since pharmacists are not licensed to practice medicine, they should resist the temptation to interfere with the doctor and patient relationship.

[UdoKier]

38. But if he worked at Wal-Mart...

...he would'nt hesitate to peddle bullets to some kid with a tec-9.

[Fescue4u]

41. If he is a private business he has that right

to not take actions against his convictions.

As do his patrons have the right to take their business somewhere else, or organize a boycot.

Considering that most towns have many pharmacies, not to mention a Walmart(gasp) with a pharmacy, its not a big issue imo.

Ironically, its the Walmart pharmacy that will proably be responsible closing down these small pharmacys that refuse to dispense certain 'objectionable' medicines.

[Mandate My Ass]

44. Walmart already refuses to dispense EC

but have no problems dispensing Viagra.

Some people (like myself) are in managed care programs and can only go to certain pharmacies that honor that plan.

I don't agree that this is merely a business decision, it is interfering in the doctor/patient relationship and needs to be stopped.

[Fescue4u]

46. I didnt know that

I guess that is in line with what I know about Walmart though.

As for " it is interfering in the doctor/patient relationship "

Well I have a Pharmacist for a Sister in Law and she insists that she is part of that doctor/patient relationship.

She refuses to dispense diet pills to folks who are already rail thin.

I had a couple of "interesting" conversations with her about that.

Apparently, the pharmacist does have liability, along with the doctor, although in this case (of b/c), it clearly is not a liability issue, but one of personal convictions.

[Mandate My Ass]

47. Agreed entirely

The pharmacist is part of the relationship and I would also hesitate to fill a diet pill script for an overly thin patient, but like you said, that's a liability issue. It is well known where I live that there are unscrupulous drs that will administer diet pills scripts to anybody who is willing to pay for them.

I don't think personal convictions should be part of the equation. It's merely forcing warped morality onto someone else who may quite likely be a captive audience.

[tnliberaldemocrat]

56. WRONG!!!!

Wal-Mart DOES dispense birth control pills, my wife has had her prescription filled there for months. Maybe yours is another one of these right-wing wacko pharmacists.

[Heddi]

45. But it's not always that easy

The town my mother in law lives in is in very rural Kansas. There is ONE pharmacy in town. The closest pharmacy after that is 150 miles to the north. There's another 150 miles or so to the Southwest.

So what happens if someone in her town wants BC pills...be they a teenager or *gasp* a 38 year old married woman who just doesn't feel like having any kids?

They're supposed to drive 150 miles every month to get meds?

You're wrong when you say most towns have many pharmacies. Considering that 80% of counties in the US don't even have an abortion provider, and there are large expanses in this country that have only one or two towns per every 200 miles, I'd be willing to bet that for every, say, Seattle, wehre there are 304989847 pharmcies, there are at least 5 Oswald's (the town my MIL lives in) that only has one, and only one within any reasonable driving distance.

Also, it seems that you and a few other people in this thread see NO problem with this pharmacist refusing to do their job. The pharmacist doesn't have medical information on patients. They don't have prescribing powers. They don't have diagnosing powers. They don't know medical histories or past instances or whatever. All they get is a prescription and it is their job to fill this prescription, regardless of whether or not they disagree with the outcome of the medcine on personal grounds.

I mean, birth control has been legal in this country for quite some time. Aside from the fact that he admits he doesn't know the difference between a contraceptive and an abortifacent which should make him unfit to dispense medicine, he should know that there will be times that people come to him for prescriptions for birth control pills, or hormone replacement therapy, or viagra, or beta-blockers or anticholergenic drugs.

Because this guy has NO information about family history, patient history, diagnosis, etc, he has NO reason to deny the drugs on ANY reason. Shit---even if he DID know why women were getting BC pills, it's none of his fucking business. Deal with it and pray to god on Sunday if you think that handing out the pill is a mortal sin.

I like how he says that he'll dispense them for menopause---as if you can smell a menopausal woman. Of course, I'm sure to him, anyone with wrinkles and grey hair MUST be menopausal while someone who is perky, young, and without a trace of age MUST be promiscious...here's a hint---women who take chemotherapy and radiation often go through early-onset menopause. Women who have had uterine, cervical, endometrial, ovarian cancers and who have had hysterectomies or ovaries removed will go through early-onset menopause.

Some women have irregular periods and need BC pills NOT for the contraceptive use, but for regulation of their menstrual cycles.

Some women have metabolic and hormonal disorders and the BC pills regulate their hormones.

For him to be able to look and tell if someone has what he considers to be a bonafide non-contraceptive need for BC pills is akin to me being able to tell if someone has cancer by the strength of their handshake.

This man is not qualified to be licensed (see my previous posts in this thread about his wilfull ignorance regarding different classes of drugs). If he has a moral problem with dispensing certain medications, then HE needs to take his business elsewhere--not the customers. It is up to HIM to meet their needs...not up to the customers to make sure they fit the moral profile of their doctors or pharmacists.

[kimchi]

42. He is way too stupid to be a pharmacist.

Women can get pregnant while going through menopause for the first several years-the ovulation is irregular, but it happens. It isn't impossible to become pregnant, even though it is unlikely, until the menses cease completely. Dumbass.

[dragonlady]

49. Related development (AG opinion in Wisconsin)

Our attorney general in Wisconsin, Peg Lautenschlager, has issued a formal opinion requiring that if employer-provided health plans cover prescriptions, they must cover contraceptives, including the morning-after pill, with no exemptions for religious-based organizations that oppose birth control.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/aug04/251759.asp

[luaneryder]

51. I have just made an email complaint

to The Medicine Shoppe franchise headquarters.

[Heddi]

52. We should also write letters to the licensing board

because (as I've stated in several posts in this thread) that any pharmacist who doesn't know the difference between a contraceptive (what birth control pills ARE) and an abortifacent (what birth control pills AREN'T) is lacking the knowledge and professional education to dispense medications.

The fact that he got his information from a guest on a radio talk show----yeah, that trumps EVERYTHING you learned in school....

This dude is professionally unfit. He has no right dispensing ANY medication if he doesn't know that contraceptives are just that -- CONTRA (against) CEPTIVE (conception).

Could you imagine if you went to your Dr's office for a sore throat and he gave you a pap-smear because he heard on the radio that sometimes people have throats in their vaginas? That Dr would be unfit to practice. Just as this pharmacist is unfit to practice. It has nothing to do with his supposed religious reasons for not dispensing ---- if that's not eggregious enough. Instead, his MEDICAL and PHARMACEUTICAL knoweldge is so severely lacking that I question his judgement on ALL medications, their contraindications, overdoses, and signs of toxicity in the patients.

[Deja Q]

53. Ethical? Teach this idiot about peak oil and then tell me otherwise.

We need birth control.

We have enough lives as it is, can't feed many of them for starters, and how what we use to grow and transport the stuff will ultimately become so expensive that only the wealthy can afford it.

And we, the middle class and poor, run around killing each other while they laugh.

[Ducks In A Row]

55. I'm waiting for a pharmacists refuse to dispense...

Viagra or fertility drugs for religious reasons. when that happens you watch there will be laws forbidding pharmacists from refusing to dispense anything.

[Tight_rope]

57. Why is there always a problem in TEXAS...when will we learn...

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

58. This man can kiss his women customers good-bye!