Pro-Life Pharmacies Refusing To Sell Birth Control

There's a growing trend in America that has nothing to do with gladiator sandals or high-waisted skirts and yet everything to do with women's bodies. According to the <em>Washington Post:

When DMC Pharmacy opens this summer on Route 50 in Chantilly, the shelves will be stocked with allergy remedies, pain relievers, antiseptic ointments and almost everything else sold in any drugstore. But anyone who wants condoms, birth control pills or the Plan B emergency contraceptive will be turned away.

That's because the drugstore, located in a typical shopping plaza featuring a Ruby Tuesday, a Papa John's and a Kmart, will be a "pro-life pharmacy" -- meaning, among other things, that it will eschew all contraceptives.

These stores are a emerging hot on the heels a few highly publicized cases of pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control pills and morning-after pills like Plan B. While pharmacists and the lawyers representing them argue that it's their constitutional right to act on what they think is right or wrong, the result is stores who refuse to even carry the products.

Critics are even more concerned about this, claiming that "the stores could create dangerous obstacles for women seeking legal, safe and widely used birth control methods." The problem is compounded by pharmacists who, while unwilling to fill the prescription themselves, are also unwilling to pass the prescription on to someone who will.

"If I don't believe something is right, the last thing I want to do is refer to someone else," said Michael G. Koelzer, who owns Kay Pharmacy in Grand Rapids, Mich. "It's up to that person to be able to find it."

And lastly, there is growing concern over what will happen if this trend really takes hold.

"We may find ourselves with whole regions of the country where virtually every pharmacy follows these limiting, discriminatory policies and women are unable to access legal, physician-prescribed medications," said R. Alta Charo, a University of Wisconsin lawyer and bioethicist. "We're talking about creating a separate universe of pharmacies that puts women at a disadvantage."

You can read the whole article here.

What do you think? Should pharmacists and medical professionals be able to pick and choose which aspects of their profession they partake in? Or should their religious beliefs be checked at the door?

Tell us your thoughts below.

Comments

[LuckyBlessed]

Unrelated, but this was the only Health Care item I could find on Huff Post;
This affects a variety of people, including those on disability.

A Medicare/Medicaid loophole is causing some to lose their prescription drug coverage, while allowing multi-million dollar pharmacy benefit managers to rake-in record profits.

Under Medicare (and Medicaid) Part D, beneficiaries meet a yearly deductible then pay 25% of their prescription costs up to $2,500. Then they fall into a "coverage gap" in which they pay 100%. Unless cumulated costs exceed $5,700 - "catastrophic coverage" - they will spend the rest of the year paying for each prescription.

CBS 6 discovered one example in which a Part D plan - Healthfirst - paid $45.89 to the PBM for the cholesterol drug Simvastatin, but the PBM - ExpressScripts - paid only $16.86 to the pharmacist.

Healthfirst called that "an unrepresentative snapshot," but it certainly adds-up. Last year, ExpressScripts boasted record income of $567 million. Others fared even better. MedCo earned $912 million, while CVS Caremark netted $2.6 billion.

With Simvastatin, by choosing the amount paid to the PBM -- $45.89 - instead of the amount paid to the pharmacy -- $16.86 - the customer's total increases, pushing that customer into the gap sooner.

Healthfirst, the Part D plan in that example, insisted it is not pushing customers intentionally into the coverage gap..President Pat Wong told CBS 6, "We're not that evil."

For more info; http://www.medicarerights.org/policyframeset.html

[jalapeno]

I guess I won't be buying my male douche and lube there either.

[ming099]

.........this is like the lazy guy who worked at Home Depot.....­.........w­ouldnt sell tools to workers because he didnt believe in WORK..........

......if someone worked for me in my drugstore and wouldnt fill birth control prescripti­ons....the­y would be looking other work as soon as they refused the FIRST 'script...its ridiculous.....you have no right to foist YOUR belief system on me....I am paying for a service.........if you dont deliver....I take my biznezz elsewhere....

[IndependentMeans]

Once you open Pandora's Box there is not going back. Birth control was approved by the FDA in 1960, that means 48 years ago. Therefore, most pharmacists would have to be at least 70 to not know they were going to be dispensing birth control when the entered this profession. To cry wolf after the fact is unacceptable, and they should be fined for refusing to comply with a doctor's prescription.

[Pacific231]

Here's a philosophical question for you all:

Your wife/GF/si­ster/mothe­r/etc. is, God forbid, brutally raped.

The pharmacist refuses to give your wife/GF/si­ster/mothe­r/etc. a Plan B contraceptive to avoid becoming pregnant by the rapist.

The philosophical question is this: Within how many inches of the pharmacist's life do you beat him until he divulges where the Plan B meds are located within the pharmacy?

For me I think I'd need to answer using the metric system.

Christian fundies hate women like skinheads hate Jews.

[fetacheese]

i appreciate your post so much. it just makes the point so so clear. why should anyone have to explain themselves to a f**king pharmacist?? i am pretty sure their job is to simply FOLLOW THE ORDERS THEY ARE GIVEN from a MEDICAL DOCTOR, who has already examined the patient and has made a sound analysis! it's SO SO disgusting that this is allowed. who the hell do they think they are? if they wanted a "moral" professional, they should work for their church and stay OUT OF THE FIELD OF MEDICINE and PHARMACOLOGY.

or, as you suggest, beating them into submission is a likely alternative.

[DMSmith]

I cannot fathom why it is even possible for a pharmacist to refuse to fill a legal prescription from a doctor.

Any pharmacist who refuses to fill a legal prescription should be put in jail, and lose his/her license to operate.

Period.

My medication is between me and my doctor. It's not up to a pharmacist to interpret or agree. It should be law they must fill a prescription. When I realized this was not the case, I was shocked to the core.

Someone else's religious beliefs have nothing to do with my doctor's treatment of me, and never should.

[fetacheese]

well said. i too was kinda shocked and saddened by this. i can't believe this is actually legal. i don't even know what else to say than it is utterly ridiculous. i can't imagine living in a place where freaks like this are allowed to pull this sort of crap...god bless new york!

[coolmaiden]

Here in Illinois, it is illegal not to fill prescriptions for contraceptions. The law clearly states that if the pharmacist refuses, they are required to refer the customer to a pharmacy that will fill it, or risk losing their license. With our history of hideously corrupt governors in Illinois, this is one thing our governor did that I am actually proud of.

[Theda]

What's outlandish is.... these nut jobs think taking birth control pills is the same as having an abortion. Of course, if someone wants to have an abortion, it's none of their business, anyway.
What if the pharmacist says....."I'm a Christian--- I won't fill prescriptions for Jewish people because they killed Christ and don't believe in Jesus!?"

[DogTown]

and Jesus was jewish!

[NoSillyName]

The last law declaring contraception illegal was not struck down until 1965.

Here’s a bit of history:

Anthony Comstock was responsible for the 1873 federal law banning birth control & the passage of similar laws in 22 states. The strictest laws were passed in Connecticut & Massachusetts. Contraceptive information was considered "obscene".

Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) campaigned from 1914 until 1937 to remove the stigma of obscenity from contraception.

Between 1912 & 1930, House Bills to repeal the Comstock Laws in Connecticut were repeatedly rejected. In 1931 doctors began to support the bills. Between 1941 & 1959, seventeen bills were entered; some passed in the House but were defeated in the Senate. Arguments continued to center on religious views & questions of public morality.

It was not until Griswald v. Connecticut that the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional the 1879 birth control law of Connecticut, the last vestige of Comstock's law, in 1965. This was the first ruling that the Constitution protected a right to privacy.

Later decisions by the court extended the principles of Griswold beyond its particular facts. Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972) extended its holding to unmarried couples, whereas the "right of privacy" in Griswold only applied to marital relationships.

http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1982/6/82.06.03.x.html

Birth control pills were declared safe for use in the U.S. in 1960, but good luck getting them if you weren’t married.

Are these pharmacists trying to bring back the not-so-great past?

[separatingwheatfromchaff]

Nothing here that a quick $10 million fine wouldn't cure.This is exactly the type of case that should be expedited and disposed of ASAP.The general public shouldn't have to worry about some crazed radical pharmacy chain owner denying legally approved drugs.It's a drugstore,not a church.

[joyf1]

Birth control pills are also prescribed for other health situations. (ie ovarian cysts, regulation of periods, etc.) Pitiful. When will this end? And McC wants to overturn Griswold v Connecticut?? Women better wake up before we lose every right we've fought for.

[rowzeer]

Exactly I was placed on birth control as a young adult to regulate my periods because it was so constant I was extremely anemic.

These pharmacists are just hypocrites! If they are really against abortion then why deny birth control...because it's not about stopping abortion it's about controlling women and their reproduction

[eternalkerri]

Oh just wait till it happens to just one really angry woman with a lot of time and money to spend on suing them. One twist of the legal knife and they'll howl.


I can almost see the plan-b reasoning. but outright refusing to sell condoms is just insane morality. just shut up captain lab-coat and get me a pack a trojans.

[GingerB]

Those pharmacists should have their licenses revoked.

[Checquoline]

Women in these areas need to find a good mail order pharmacy and have their RX sent there. They can get a years supply. My insurance uses Merck Medco but there are others. There is no need to buy locally when it is perfectly legal to order from the maker as long as you have a prescription.

[MelKnee]

That doesn't work with the emergency contraceptive Plan-B.

[trinity]

They probably still fill prescriptions of Viagra because the "man of the house" should be able to get his jollies. The woman however, should be happy when she is pregnant again...and again...and again...and again... My the Duggar family in AR will soon have a lot of competition, there will be numerous "good Christian" wives will 15+ children.