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From yesterday.
llinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and St. Louis lawyer Ed Martin are slated to appear late this afternoon on CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight’’ to discuss Illinois’ rule requiring pharmacies to fill emergency-contraception prescriptions.The show runs from 5-6 p.m. Central time. Martin will join Dobbs in New York, while Blagojevich will be based in Chicago.
Martin is the lawyer representing the four Walgreen Co. pharmacists from the Metro East who were put on unpaid leave for refusing to fill such prescriptions. Martin also works for Americans United for Life, and is the Republican chairman for the St. Louis Election Board.
I’m curious how it went.
UPDATE: The transcript is up.
“To suggest that somehow pharmacists should be treated differently, would be to suggest for example, that when you go to your supermarket and the clerk is checking out your food, and that clerk may be a vegetarian, that when you check through the counter to pay your bill, he’s checking the asparagus and the potatoes and the pasta, but when he gets to the ground sirloin, says: I’m sorry, I have a moral objection to meat, I’m not going to sell you the hamburger.”
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Dec 2, 05 @ 12:43 am
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Wow. The Governor made Illinois proud tonight. I was very impressed.
Blagojevich made very solid arguements and was comfortable and in control during the entire interview - not always an easy task with some of these cable news programs.
The Governor is right. Pharmacist are not covered under the Professional Practices Law. A doctor or nurse makes the determination as to whether contraceptives or the morning after pill is appropriate. The pharmacists just fill an order.
These pharmacists are wrong and are being used to make a political statement by the IL Republicans.
The moral decision lies with the individual - not the pharmacists.
Comment by JSM Friday, Dec 2, 05 @ 2:23 am
I walked into my Walgreens last week and was shocked to find they did not sell pornographic magazines.
I was outraged. How DARE they play moralist.
I propose to fix this social injustice with the Illinois Pharmacy Pornography Act. Its purpose is to stop pharmacies from picking and chosing which magazines they want to sell.
Comment by Anonymous Friday, Dec 2, 05 @ 6:29 am
6:29, thats a bad comparison. You can’t compare a pharmacist denying a person a prescription given by a physician with a store palying moral police by not selling pornagraphy. What purpose does a pharmacy serve if not to dispense medications? Doctors prescribe medication to patients, and doctors know what medications their patiuents need. It is the job of the pharmacist to ensure that people get hte meds that doctors say they need.
It’s that simple. Pharmacists should never be abloe to refuse to dispense the meds that a doctor prescribes. If they object to dispensing medication, they should choose another profession.
By the way, Blagojevich did an outatanding job on CNN.
Comment by The Dude Friday, Dec 2, 05 @ 8:05 am
Rod got more national press, shocking. Is it not clear to everyone that he only takes positions on issues that will get him on CNN, mentioned in the NY times?
Looks like his meeting with Carville paid off.
Comment by Anonymous Friday, Dec 2, 05 @ 8:14 am
8:14, I suppose you would prefer the Gov. avoid taking positions on issues so as to stay out of the news? Blago didn’t create the issue he signed a bill he supported. The law is not the big story. The pharmacists refusing to follow it are.
Comment by Pek Friday, Dec 2, 05 @ 8:36 am
8:36
It was actually an Emergency Rule as of April, and then later become a Permenant Rule adopted by the Joint Committee on Adminstrative Rules.
Comment by Xolotl Friday, Dec 2, 05 @ 9:06 am
Sorry, I was 8:14 I was to which I was refering…
Comment by Xolotl Friday, Dec 2, 05 @ 9:07 am
Those pharmacists are employees of Walgreen. Walgreen’s has decided to offer that legal prescription medication for sale and the pharmacists disobeyed the company policy for dispensing the medications. They are lucky they weren’t simply fired, but instead were generously accommodated with unpaid leave and the opportunity to transfer to other stores where the problem for them didn’t exist.
Comment by Anonymous Friday, Dec 2, 05 @ 12:09 pm
I believe one of those pharmacists from Walgreens was one who filed suit against the Emergency Rule. Another suit against the permanent rule made it to a Sangamon County court room, and heard by Judge Belz, was dismissed as the judge explained they had suffered no harm as the state had not pursued a complaint against them as of yet. I guess now they can supposedly claim that they “have been harmed.†I think they might be happy they were suspended so they can drag their hard-line, extremist points of view back into court and try to impose their medieval ways onto the majority of Illinoisans who believe they should just fill the darn prescriptions!
Comment by Anonymous Friday, Dec 2, 05 @ 1:45 pm
I believe one of those pharmacists from Walgreens was one who filed suit against the Emergency Rule. Another suit against the permanent rule made it to a Sangamon County court room, and heard by Judge Belz, was dismissed as the judge explained they had suffered no harm as the state had not pursued a complaint against them as of yet. I guess now they can supposedly claim that they “have been harmed.†I think they might be happy they were suspended so they can drag their hard-line, extremist points of view back into court and try to impose their medieval ways onto the majority of Illinoisans who believe they should just fill the darn prescriptions!
Comment by Pale Face Friday, Dec 2, 05 @ 1:46 pm
I don’t care whether pharmacists can decline to sell contraceptives or not.
This whole birth control/abortion controversy is irrelevant except to the far left and far right.
As to Blago…he appeared a little confused when Dobbs asked him a question at the end. I don’t think he is very quick on his feet in verbal repartee, which could be a problem if (sigh) he decides to pursue this silly quest for a presidential nomination.
Comment by Anonymous Friday, Dec 2, 05 @ 2:11 pm
2:11
Aside from the abortion issue remark, birth control prescriptions not being filled can be a slippery slope in that other meds could potentialy be denied. Birth control pill sales far outway any other medication that pharmacies sell and many pharmcies realize this and do not want to loose this business to some extreme nuts.
And no, this is not a far left or far right issue. Nearly 90% of American women have used birth control in their reproductive live time - I dare you do face all of them and tell them it is a non-issue!
Comment by Pale Face Friday, Dec 2, 05 @ 2:32 pm
I worked for years as a cashier at Dominicks. As the adult child of an alcoholic, it went against my moral beliefs to sell alcohol, but because I was an employee of Dominicks and they sold liquor, it was my job to ring it up. This was not a barometer of my attitude toward alcohol, I was doing my job. If pharmacists don’t want to dispense meds they don’t think people should use, they should find another profession.
Comment by meemunk Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 5:59 pm