IS because of "belief" systems and it IS taking us backward. It's also NOT just the morning after pill -- for those pharmacists who have refused, it has been typical, regular hormones. So, while I agree that technically you are right -- it doesn't matter to those who believe only in the rhythm method.
From Prevention Magazine, last July:
Find out why growing numbers of doctors and pharmacists across the US are refusing to prescribe or dispense birth control pillsby Caroline Bollinger
IntroIn April, Julee Lacey, 33, a Fort Worth, TX, mother of two, went to her local CVS drugstore for a last-minute Pill refill. She had been getting her prescription filled there for a year, so she was astonished when the pharmacist told her, "I personally don't believe in birth control and therefore I'm not going to fill your prescription." Lacey, an elementary school teacher, was shocked. "The pharmacist had no idea why I was even taking the Pill. I might have needed it for a medical condition."
Melissa Kelley, 35, was just as stunned when her gynecologist told her she would not renew her prescription for birth control pills last fall.
"She told me she couldn't in good faith prescribe the Pill anymore," says Kelley, who lives with her husband and son in Allentown, PA. Then the gynecologist told Kelley she wouldn't be able to get a new prescription from her family doctor, either. "She said my primary care physician was the one who helped her make the decision." Lacey's pharmacist and Kelley's doctors are among hundreds, perhaps thousands, of physicians and pharmacists who now adhere to a controversial belief that birth control pills and other forms of hormonal contraception--including the skin patch, the vaginal ring, and progesterone injections--cause tens of thousands of "silent" abortions every year. Consequently, they are refusing to prescribe or dispense them.
Scenarios like these--virtually unheard of 10 years ago--are happening with increasing frequency. However, until this spring, the issue received little attention outside the antiabortion community. It wasn't high on the agendas of reproductive rights advocates, who have been preoccupied with defending abortion rights and emergency contraception. But when Lacey's story was picked up by a Texas TV station and later made the national news, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and others took notice.
<snip> more -- much more
http://www.prevention.com/article/0,5778,s1-1-93-35-4130-1-P,00.html***
For me -- this is about
Reproductive Rights and Reproductive Freedom. A Pharmacist is NOT a doctor, and has no right usurping a doctor's orders. Whether or not a woman is married and on the pill shouldn't matter -- whether or not a woman is using the pill for birth control, or for hormonal regulation (to stop excessive bleeding, etc.) or to get rid of ovarian cysts shouldn't matter. This violates a privacy between a woman and her doctor and gives the pharmacist more power than the doctor (and that is WRONG). If a pharmacist doesn't "believe" in such contraception, he/she should merely not fill the prescription (by giving it to another pharmacist to fill) and consider getting another job.
I wrote a lengthy response to NARAL petition being passed around for legislation in Ohio that will outlaw all Abortion. In it I mentioned the reactionary pharmacists. Here is my last paragraph, and where I feel at least some of the message should stay (reproductive rights):
**
... Abortion should stay rare, safe, and legal. Other reproductive choices, such as IUDs, sterilization, hormones, etc. should stay available for all women, regardless of their income level. I will not be treated as if someone who happens to pass laws knows "more" than what my, or any other woman's circumstances are in making personal reproductive choices. I will not be treated as if someone who dispenses medication knows “more” than my own personal physician. I will fight for women's reproductive rights, because Government, State or Federal, should not be involved in this matter AT ALL.
---
edit:clarity