Some Pharmacists Refuse to Sell Birth Control Products

Or anything else which they might not want to sell for whatever reason, PROVIDED they don't sell it to ANYBODY.

A couple of other examples of things a store might not want to sell would be a pet store not wantint to sell poisonous spiders or snakes, or a clothing store not wanting to sell 3" Monica Lewinski skirts.

So long as they refuse to sell those things to EVERYBODY, I'd assume they were on good legal ground. It's when you single out some group of people to refuse to sell something to that you should run afoul of civil rights laws.

Women should understand that there is a difference between RU-486 which is definitely an abortion pill and something like Plan-B which is a contraceptive of last resort. Plan-B has to be taken within three days.

If you look hard enough you should be able to find some reliable source for that sort of thing on the net.

One Indian supply source which has good prices and asks zero questions and is good for antibiotics at least is:

http://www.supersavermeds.com/

They don't seem to have Plan-B or RU-486 but, like I say, if you look hard enough those should be findable.

I think that to rely on the internet to fill in the gap made by overly-judgmental pharmacists is to deny the fact that there is a very big population in this country that does not own a computer and even bigger that does not have internet access. It's possible these folks would feel comfortable ordering birth control online (you still need to fax or send your prescription) at the library, but it's also possible that they don't know how to use the internet.

Illinois Pharmacies Ordered to Provide Birth Control

By MONICA DAVEY

Published: April 2, 2005

CHICAGO, April 1 - With a growing number of reports of pharmacists around the country refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control and emergency contraception, Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich on Friday filed a rule requiring Illinois pharmacies to accept and dispense all such prescriptions promptly.

"Our regulation says that if a woman goes to a pharmacy with a prescription for birth control, the pharmacy or the pharmacist is not allowed to discriminate or to choose who he sells it to or who he doesn't sell it to," Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, said. "No delays. No hassles. No lectures."

Two Chicago women, he said, reported in February that they had been turned away from a downtown drugstore when they tried to fill prescriptions for morning-after birth control pills. On Friday, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation filed a formal complaint against that pharmacy, one in the Osco chain, and said it could face discipline ranging from a fine to the revocation of its license. No one from Osco's corporate offices could be reached for comment on Friday.

Nationally, the leaders of Planned Parenthood and Naral Pro-Choice America said they had seen more and more cases like that over the past year. They emphasized that women in smaller communities or in rural areas, with perhaps only one pharmacy to use, might be left unable to receive their prescribed birth control if the pattern was allowed to continue.

"Pharmacies have an ethical and legal obligation," said Nancy Keenan, the president of Naral.

Governor Blagojevich, saying that his emergency rule clarified an existing state requirement, said he suspected that the pattern of complaints over the past year was no coincidence, but rather "part of a concerted effort" to prevent women from getting the birth control they wanted.

Under the emergency rule put in place in Illinois, pharmacies that do not have a particular prescribed contraceptive would be required to order some or to send the prescription to another pharmacy.

But Susan C. Winckler of the American Pharmacists Association, which represents 52,000 pharmacists, said she had concerns about the emergency rule in Illinois. The association, she said, believes that pharmacists should be allowed to "step away" in cases where they feel uncomfortable dispensing a particular drug - so long as their customers can still get their drugs from alternative sources.

Ms. Winckler said she also worried that Governor Blagojevich's new rule might reach beyond the question of a pharmacist's own moral sensibilities, and require pharmacists to dispense all prescriptions, even those that were "clinically inappropriate" for patients. Such cases might include ones in which a pharmacist discovered a customer's allergy or a potential drug interaction that a prescribing doctor had missed.

"Depending on the wording of the rule, there is a real risk that the governor could be creating," Ms. Winckler said. "The pharmacist is not a gas station attendant where if there is gas you have to sell it. Pharmacists are supposed to assess the appropriateness of a drug."

Abby Ottenhoff, a spokeswoman for Mr. Blagojevich, said the new rule did not take away a pharmacist's right to counsel a patient about a prescription within the confines of existing state law.

"That doesn't change," she said. "What cannot happen is the pharmacist cannot allow personal factors and feelings to interfere."

And rightfully so! As I said previously, a pharmacist
cannot be allowed to have his personal belief interfere with
his work. Common sense prevailed!

I thought maybe this was a male/female thing so I looked up the breakdown and found that in the 25-35 age group female pharmacists outnumber males. The reverse is true in the 50-60 age group.

Well if it's going to be okay to not sell birth control because you don't believe Jesus wants you to then I say we apply these standards across the board.

I say from now on the IRS can kiss my ass. Jesus kicked the tax collectors' asses and didn't approve of them so if it's good enough for the Lord and Savior it's good enough for me.

Jesus, he's not just for corporations anymore.

In Jesus' time birth control was the last thing they thought about. Propagation was key to the survival of the Jews.

Yeah, nice try. The IRS, in this case is ruthlessly agnostic.

panzade, I doubt that a female pharmacist would object
to a prescription for contraceptives.

Personal beliefs and
religion cannot interefere. What if the pharmacist of your
choice is a Jehovas Witness and won't fill your prescription
for blood cloagulants, as it is against his religion?

That will be the day, when a pharmacist can make up the
rules. He signed a code of ethics, let him stick to it.

My point CJ and Pan is that poor Jesus gets trotted out by every sumbitch to rubber stamp every busllshyt idea these days, so why not mine?

I wrote that because I thought this might be a control issue. That's why I looked up the sex/age breakdown. What would really be cool is a sex/age breakdown of the pharmacists who have refused to sell contraceptives.
One hesitates to jump to sexist conclusions.

CalamityJane

Bush swore to support and defend the US and look what he did. Ethics?

<happy I helped elext Blagojevich>

au1929, don't worry, we'll get rid of him (Bush) in a few
years and hopefully that will be the end of medieval imperialism.

yes but who's warming up in the bullpen?

What's a bullpen?

That's where the team is constantly warming up their next pitcher. Sports analogy.

LOL...American IS a complex language.

It is panzade. I've been here such a long time, but apparently
not long enough

Mr. Throbber, Jeb Bush doesn't get far, he has too much
dirt on his hands.

To be fair, he also has some bright spots...I wouldn't rule him out...just yet.
As long as Frist or DeLay are absent...1,000 Hail Mary's