Conservative pharmacists refusing to fill birth control prescriptions

In other news, snow showers forecast for hell. :mad:

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/Living/birth_control_pharmacists_040406-1.html

When Julee Lacey, a married mother of two, tried to get her birth control pill prescription refilled at a CVS near her home in suburban Dallas, the pharmacist refused.

"She began to tell me that she personally does not believe in birth control, and that therefore she would not fill my prescription," said Lacey, who attends church regularly and is a former teacher of the year.

Lacey's situation could happen with increasing frequency, since many conservatives are seeking laws that would protect pharmacists' jobs if they refuse to fill any prescription they oppose on religious or moral grounds.

"Pharmacists should not be forced to do anything," said Karen Brauer, president of Pharmacists for Life International. "Pharmacists should be practicing pharmacy for the purpose and benefit of enhancing human health and human life."...

They may want to not fill birth control pills now.

Next one might object to heart medicine due to some Biblical verse.

Fire the fundy assholes.

(a valid one), they should be fired...on-the-spot-period.

If they won't do their job they're in the wrong profession

pharmacists have no right to decide what to fill and what not to fill. People have prescriptions from doctors. It is the pharmacists job to fill those prescriptions. What makes them have the right to do that???? I know some women who take birth control solely for the purpose of having a regular period.

If they refuse to fill a person's prescription for birth control, what are they gonna refuse to fill next? Are they gonna refuse an old man his heart medication because it's God's plan for him to die any minute now????

Those god-damned republicans need to be stopped...and stopped now. :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

pills as medicine (or I get cysts on my ovaries). I would have to be in the operating room on a regular basis if I couldn't get a hold of the medication. I suppose that there are yahoos out there who would take this medication away from me because, technically, it is an abortifescent. Honest-to-Cosmic-Muffin, I didn't think, having enjoyed the 70's, that I'd ever (again) see the day when one couldn't get one's birth control. Have I gone back in time to the 50's?

Shit, that's the funniest thing I've heard all day. Thanks.

Also, thanks for educating me about some of the non-contraceptive uses for birth control pills. Thanks to everyone actually. Obviously I wouldn't have the SLIGHTEST problem with birth control pills even if they were strictly contraceptive, but this thread has been an interesting education nonetheless.

n/t.

I'm kidding. Thanks!

She has a different problem, but has been on birth control pills since she started menstruating.

If a pharmacist ever refused to fill her meds I'd love to be on hand with a camera.

and go after their ass for practicing medicine without a license to do so. I mean it. These fundies are going too far. My guess is this was a planned campaign or we wouldn't be treated to a rash of this BS all the sudden

Also willing to wager that many of these health care professionals are hoping to be fired/sued so they can lament how they are being persecuted for their faith.

So what happens when a fireman, peace officer or paramedic decides that any intervention in an emergency is an act of blasphemy as it would be interfering with 'god's will'?

We aren't fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, we are fighting them here and they are disguised as xtians.

Stuff it, Falwell, you don't get to run the US!

I understand this is quite common for our age group. I'm starting to get a little worried about all this. A burst cyst in theory could be life-threatening. I think some of them, if we are not making babies, they really don't care if we live or die.

Pharmacists are NOT qualified to second guess ANY physician order beyond checking for proper person, dose, route, time, and drug.

FIRE the bastards. Let them go open up store front churches. Get them the HELL OUT OF HEALTHCARE.

Pharmacists are trained in drug interactions. Here's how it works:

You have two doctors, a GP and an OB/GYN. Each has her own records. Your OB/GYN has you on drug A for condition B. Six months later, the GP prescribes you drug C for condition D.

You take your script for drug C to your pharmacist, who pulls up your file and sees that drug C is contraindicated if you're taking drug A. Your pharmacist will call your GP and get a different drug prescribed for your condition.

Having said that, all of which is true, if drug A is birth control, condition B is you don't want to be pregnant, and condition C is that your pharmacist is religiously insane, your pharmacist really should have two choices: get a job in a Catholic hospital where his religious beliefs won't be abused, or fill the prescription as written. None of this "I don't believe in birth control so you don't get any" shit.

there is a new law protecting pharmacists who refuse to fill the "morning after pill" prescription. Don't know if it goes for birth control. Wonder if the drug stores will stop selling condoms as well?

n/t

why would such "moral" assholes become PHARMACISTS ???

...it's a BUSINESS - and capitalism still trumps religion in this country.

Any wingnut pharmacist who pulls shit like this deserves to get canned - and should never distribute medication again.

(1) have their licenses taken away if they refuse to fill a prescription;
(2) be subject to lawsuits over damages (including unwanted pregnancy) resulting from denial of prescription medications; and
(3) be fired immediately if they refuse to fill prescriptions.

I find that rather rediculous. I am against abortions in most cases(just doesn't make sense to me, seems better to focus all this energy towards programs to help parents who are not ready or to spend it reforming the foster care system) but to be against birth control is just asking for abortions to take place.

advanced-stage abortions, such as a DNC. Technically speaking, my Lo-ovral 21 is an abortifescent, as it prevents implantation. And, while I really really do respect your views, and welcome your views within the Democratic party, as an ex-social-worker, I must say - there is no reform that one could implement to deal with 40 million unwanted children. Anyone who has had to place older, abandoned children knows that, at the very least, the Morning After, Lo-Oval, and DNC's must be available -- or this society would collapse. You see, it is a myth that there are enough adoptive parents out there. There are for white babies, fresh out of the shoot, who have been reliquished, and who have not been exposed to illegal drugs in utero. For everyone else, it is a heartbreaking situation. As I said before, if you are a pharmacist, and you don't fill the prescription, you need to be fired.

If a pharmacist lets their personal biases prevent them from performing their job, they ought to have their license yanked.

Back in January, three Eckerd's Pharmacists refused to fill a prescription for the "morning-after pill" for a woman who'd been RAPED.

People like that should never be allowed to practice Pharmacy again.

I felt so bad for that victim. Imagine having just been raped, and someone is denying you your medication, on top of everything else? That person should have been fired, sued personally for inflicting mental distress, and probably have their license suspended.

One of those yahoo pharmacists called and consulted with his friggin Pastor about whether or not he should fill the prescription. Pardon my saying so, but what the hell?

What qualification does any Pastor have to comment on whether or not a prescription should be filled? :crazy:

Any pharmacist that seeks a Pastor's advice on prescriptions should be deemed professionally incompetent.

Should be reported to their state licensing board immediately.

They wanna be persecuted for their faith or there wouldn't be this sudden glut of these instances happening. Prosecute them instead. When they are making the decision about what legal drug a woman can have, they are practicing medicine. When they chat up a pastor about it, I would hope they are in violation of some requirement to do their job in a timely manner and protect the confidentiality of the client.

Notice to pharmacists: The person standing before you with a legal prescription is a client, not a piece of chattel you get to make decisions for!

The pharmacist would be fired on the spot and spend the rest of her life flipping burgers at McDonalds. She could probably get a good settlement deal.

http://www.tsbp.state.tx.us/

And some kind of Pharmacist Oath from UTEP

http://chs.utep.edu/pharmacy/oath/home.html

From what I gather, this is not against the law, nor is it grounds for license revocation.

pharmacist is guilty of malpractice.

Pharmacists act on the orders of medical doctors. I do not believe that that we have the right to make independent judgments on prescription medicine- if there is no reason to believe that the Rx is forged or stolen. ( In that case you call the police).

She is WAY out of line.

Perhaps she should seek another way of making a living.

Article IV of the Code of Ethics for Pharmacists:

IV. A pharmacist acts with honesty and integrity in professional relationships.

A pharmacist has a duty to tell the truth and to act with conviction of conscience. A pharmacist avoids discriminatory practices, behavior or work conditions that impair professional judgment, and actions that compromise dedication to the best interests of patients.

You know that scripts are refused everyday. I think that refusing to fill on moral grounds is wrong, and the Pharmacists should be counseled at least.

I have refused to fill many scripts, mostly schedule II's and scripts for patients that I have seen in the store sometimes 3 times a week for Xanax or somthing like that. Were the Pharmacists wrong, yea, fine em, or suspend them. After you are done with them, then you can take on the Catholic Hospitals that tell docs they are not to write scripts for BCP's. That I think is worse.

When I was a social worker ('93 to 2000), it seemed as if every hospital 'my kids' went to was owned by some religious group, who refused to permit either birth control prescriptions or sterilizations or abortions on the premises. Just a way they can harass couples more.

Somehow, no one was every around (especially Republicans or Relgious Taliban) when I had to place older children after BM and BF abandoned them.

But I agree...if a Doc denied filling one of my relative's suspicious Vicadin prescriptions...he or she would probably be doing the world a favor.

if you can't get it filled?

Who are the pharmacists to make such life and death decisions? If they had that authority, wouldn't we call them doctors? How does that woman know that those pills weren't for some other condition, like severe PMS or dysmenorrhea or amenorrhea?

In some cases it's a pharmacist who has uncovered drug rings. It's not uncommon and the pharmacists involved should be given medals.

I agree about counseling pharmacists that refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control pills on moral grounds. The last one I recall was a DU thread about Plan B. I hope that I never run into a pharmacist who thinks they know better than me whether or not I should become a mommy.

How judgemental some people are and how they love to stick their noses into your bedroom.

There are millions of republican voters and millions of independent voters who would be outraged by these cases and the republican laws that protect these pharmacists. And there are millions more non-voters who might become motivated to vote to stop this Bushshit. A huge ad campaign targeting these people would stir up serious public condemnation of this growing practice. If Bush defends these pharmacists, I think it would cost him millions of votes. If he condemns them, it would stir up an ugly conflict within the republican party between the Reich wing fundamentalists and the other parts of the republican base.

based on the assumption that abortion shouldn't be the answer to an unplanned pregnancy, but it's yet another to realize the people you are aligning yourself with are pro-life to the point they would outlaw most birth control pills.

In fact, I remember when Rush Limbaugh USED to discuss abortion, but once he realized that the Bible freaks wanted to out law the Pill, well, that's when he refused to discuss the issue at all.

an episiotomy the nurse called a "vaginal ceaseraen", 2 caeseraen's without anesthesia because the doctor all of a sudden realized the baby was breach, a horrendous infection caused by walking around for several weeks after a caesarean with part of a placenta still in the uterus, a womb pushed out during the birthing process. . .

These are a few of the things several of my hale and hearty friends have suffered during and after childbirth. And Karen Brauer thinks birth control doesn't "ehahnce human health and life"? How many times in a lifetime should a woman have to endure childbirth?

to give her phone number. That way she could call HER whenever her husband desires SEX.

"Pharmacists should not be forced to do anything," said Karen Brauer, president of Pharmacists for Life International. "Pharmacists should be practicing pharmacy for the purpose and benefit of enhancing human health and human life."...

Let's say I am a pharmacist.

Personally, I oppose conservatism. I think conservatives are detremental to health and human life, and therefore do not want to do anything that promotes conservatism.

So, can I object to treating conservative customers becasue I think their lifestyle is morally wrong, and that their continued existance makes the world less safe?

:)

They need to be sued big time.

Maybe they don't care since Prop 13 (Tort reform) passed in Texas.

won't dose out antibiotics and stuff because "it aborts life?" :eyes: :crazy:

honestly, this is a step too far. if she can't do the job, she should be fired