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Slamma jamma

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Illinois

The Sun-Times editorial board comes down hard on pharmacists who refuse to dispense prescribed medicine.

Pharmacists should not be the arbiters of morality for their customers. Their job is to fill doctors’ prescriptions and provide clinical information about how to take the drugs prescribed. They should not deny women access to birth control pills because they believe using them is sinful. That’s not their right. […]

A few pharmacists see birth control pills and emergency contraception as abortifacients and therefore ethically objectionable, even though studies have shown that these pills work by preventing conception, that is, preventing the fertilized egg from being implanted in the uterus. […]

Many of the pharmacists who would turn down birth control prescriptions are also those who are opposed to abortion. You have to wonder, do they feel the same ethical qualms about selling condoms or filling Viagra prescriptions?

Meanwhile, pro-life pharmacist Rep. Ron Stephens plans to fight the guv.

A Metro East lawmaker wants to allow pharmacists and other medical professionals to opt out of filling prescriptions or performing other procedures that would compromise their personal beliefs.

His proposal responds to Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s new rule requiring pharmacies to fill contraceptive prescriptions.

State Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Greenville, a pharmacist, said he was furious when he heard the governor filed an emergency rule saying Illinois pharmacies must accept and fill prescriptions for contraceptives “without delay.”

Medical professionals “should have the right to opt out,” Stephens said Monday.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 5:06 am

Comments

I didn’t think Rep. Stephens was allowed to work in a pharmacy anymore after his latest bout with drug addiction.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 8:51 am
Medical professionals “should have the right to opt out.”

They do have the right to “opt out,” just like anyone else has the right to opt out when they don’t want to do their job.

It’s called quitting and going into another line of work.

Comment by So-Called Austin Mayor Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 9:14 am
I guess it depends on what you call “conception.” The Catholic Church defines conception as fertilization of the egg by the sperm. Implantation, therefore, occurs after conception.

Preventing implantation would, then, by definition, be abortion.

So-called, would you encourage Ob doctors who don’t want to perform abortions to find another line of work?

Ever hear of religious freedom?

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 9:34 am
>Pharmacists should not be the
>arbiters of morality for
>their customers.

Of course not. That is the government’s job.

This isn’t a morality issue, it is someone overriding the government’s authority to make the rules.

How dare they.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 9:52 am
They really still allow Ron Stephens to dispense drugs after he had to go to rehab for prescription drug abuse?

Astounding.

Of course, they let him be a state legislator after voting to send people to jail for a long time for doing the same thing, so why stop the hypocrisy there?

Comment by Ralph Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 10:40 am
We have Planned Parenthood, neighborhood clinics, campus medical offices and various other places that readily sell and distribute birth control and emergency contraceptives. Why do we need every single pharmacy to do the same thing as state- and federally-funded programs/offices? For convenience?

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 12:06 pm
If a pharmacist works for a company that dispenses pharmaceuticals they are morally against, why did they take the job? Was there some surprise that dispensing birth control was a part of that job? If a company wants to find a mechanism to avoid the problem, fine, but if the drug is offered at a pharmacy, requiring it be dispensed with a doctor’s prescription is hardly controversial.

Comment by ArchPundit Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 1:44 pm
===She said the rule says that if a pharmacy does not have contraception prescriptions available, they must either order more or give the patient a choice between transferring their prescription to another pharmacy with the product or taking back the prescription.

So if one works for a place that doesn’t dispense contraception, it can transfer the prescription to another pharmacy.

Again, what is the controversy here? If you sell a regulated pharmaceutical, you have to dispense it if prescribed. If not, transfer it to someone who does. Big deal.

Comment by ArchPundit Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 1:47 pm
=== Why do we need every single pharmacy to do the same thing as state- and federally-funded programs/offices? For convenience?

That isn’t required by the order. Read the P-D article.

Comment by ArchPundit Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 1:49 pm
I thought “Pharmacist Ron” lost his license when he became his own best customer a few years ago?
Maybe he got it back

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 2:02 pm
the pharmacists should keep their moral judgement to themselves and just do their jobs. if they didnt want to work, they should have been journalists.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 5, 05 @ 8:34 pm
Pharmacists have a duty to the public as professionals. They should perform that duty without regard to their personal views of morality. And if they find they can’t do it, then they should by all means open and run “Phoebe’s Phriendly Phundamentalist Pharmacy” or something.

At the very least, pharmacies should be required to have someone else fill the prescriptions or transfer the script to a nearby pharmacy who will fill it.

Why should women be forced to endure yet another obstacle to getting medically prescribed health care?

Comment by The Inside Dope Wednesday, Apr 6, 05 @ 10:12 pm