by Robert Paul Reyes
If I hand the Blockbuster clerk the empty cases for “Pulp Fiction” and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, I expect him to fill the cases with the DVD’s. If he tells me, “I’m sorry Mr. Reyes but those movies are replete with violence, in good conscience I can’t allow you to rent them.” Before you could say, “late fees”, I would file a law suit.
When you go to a pharmacy to have a prescription for birth control pills filled, you expect the pharmacist to fill it, without delivering any moral platitudes. The only warnings he should issue, should be about any possible side effects of taking the drug.
A prescription should be sacrosanct, the pharmacist should fill it immediately, unless he suspects it of being counterfeit or fraudulent
A growing number of pharmacists are refusing to fill prescriptions for “morning-after” pills, citing religious and moral reservations.
A pharmaceutical counter is a place where a professional dispenses medicine, it should not be a pulpit where culture war is waged against an unsuspecting patient.
California is now considering legislation that would punish wayward pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions because of religious objections. Assembly Bill 21 would require the state Board of Pharmacy to revoke the licenses of renegade pharmacists who refuse on religious or moral grounds to dispense “morning-after” pills or other contraceptives. This important bill has been passed by the Assembly and will be considered by the Senate in August.
My only reservation to Bill 21 is that it doesn’t go far enough, any pharmacist who refuses to fill a valid prescription should face jail time. If my teenage niece, becomes pregnant because a pharmacist refused to fill her prescription for contraceptives, I’m sorry, but that religious idiot deserves to go to prison.
The Golden State is exercising sanity and logic in this controversial issue, I hope that other states follow its golden example.
We must fight the religious right “tooth and nail”, from the libraries and movie theatres to (unfortunately) pharmacy counters.
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a316sting said,
August 7, 2005 at 8:58 pm