Pharmacists Can't Refuse To Hand Out Plan B

[filkertom]

Frickin' well about time. Here's the money quote:

The right to freely exercise one's religion "does not relieve an individual of the obligation to comply with a valid and neutral law of general applicability," the 9th Circuit panel wrote.

"Any refusal to dispense -- regardless of whether it is motivated by religion, morals, conscience, ethics, discriminatory prejudices, or personal distaste for a patient -- violates the rules," the panel said.

Thanks to filkerdave for the heads-up.

Comments

[vulpine137.livejournal.com]

Yay !

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

Boy did that ever creep me out. Are they going to refuse to sell condoms too? Well anyway, pharmacists who tried that stunt would never get my business again.

[hsifyppah.livejournal.com]

This does not, unfortunately, stop stores from deciding not to keep it in stock "for business reasons."

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Actually, it might. What was at issue was a regulation from 2007 that "required all Washington pharmacies to stock and dispense the pills".

[ladystarblade.livejournal.com]

*blink*

Wow. Did common sense actually get a bit of a victory here?

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Actually the law requires pharmacies to stock Plan B.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

So do we have a pool on which Big Name Right-Winger is the first to scream about "activist judges"? Or maybe one to claim that liberals "have no conscience" (given that what was struck down is commonly called the "conscience clause")?

I'm just sitting here, applauding, and hoping that SCOTUS either refuses to hear the case, or upholds it.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Yeah, free exercise of religion doesn't extend to forcing your beliefs on someone else. When you take a job as a pharmacist, you're serving the public. You should no more refuse to fill someone's prescription on religious grounds than a christian firefighter should refuse to put out a fire at a family planning clinic.

You can take or not take whatever pills you like. Don't tell other people what they can and can't take, particularly when it comes to legally prescribed drugs (and maybe others too, but that's a different show).

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

And sometimes the Pill as well. Funny, though, how no one mentions refusing to sell Viagra....

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

I'm actually of two minds about these sorts of regulations. It has nothing to do with a religious belief against the drug. I think it should be freely available, along with other birth control options (which are far fewer for American women because of the religious right's stranglehold on the govt for many years). But I would not have a problem with a pharmacy that, because of the religious beliefs of the owners/employees, did not want to carry these drugs IF it was advertised as such. What is happening in too many places is that pharmacists are doing just that but not are not being honest in their advertising. There were reports (in TX if memory serves) where the pharmacists would take the script, tell the patient they wouldn't fill it because of their religious beliefs and then not give the script back to the patient.

There are people who will say that if you give anti-choice folks any leeway, they will go too far. Perhaps. But if I'm free to live my life without religion, I think others should be able to live theirs with whatever religious beliefs they choose, as long as they are honest about them.

[aylinn.livejournal.com]

on the one hand - YAY!

on the other hand, I smell an appeal to the Supreme court coming on...

[ldyerzsie.livejournal.com]

I do NOT want to see what my reaction to being refused my birth control (the Pill) by a pharmacist would be, especially since I take for hormonal control reasons rather than pregnancy prevention at the moment.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

The real-world consequences of pharmacies not carrying, or refusing to dispense, drugs shows more in sparsely populated areas than in urban, densely populated ones. When there's one pharmacy in a twenty-five or fifty-mile radius, it becomes extremely difficult to obtain the drug if one refuses; if two or three contiguous ones refuse to dispense, you'd have people having to travel one hundred miles or more (to quote the song).

That's just not acceptable, for a drug that's supposed to be fully available over the counter to adults.

[reyl.livejournal.com]

Seriously, if you don't want to dispense drugs, DON'T BECOME A PHARMACIST. Seems pretty simple to me.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

If you're right, I'd expect a denial of cert. Even the conservative justices won't want to confront this without a circuit split, I think.

[smoooom.livejournal.com]

Are people still being this . this . stupid? 27 or so years ago I saw nurses refuse to nurse women who had had an abortion. (The hospital that I trained at, until I quit, was designated as an abortion hospital in Ontario at the time) I won't try and explain the process a woman had to go through to get an abortion back then. It was a turing point for me in that Those nurses made me think, for the first time in my life about abortion. Along with a 14 year old who died after an ileagle abortion. As care givers, on ANY level we don't have the right to refuse, to give care, dispense a pill or anything else. We are there to help and heal. SOmetimes people drive me bananas!

My favorite analogy

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Someone on the firehose of blogs from which I drink once described a devout vegetarian taking a job at McDonalds so that she could stand there at the register, blocking customers from getting service from the other employees, and refuse to fill any customer order that included meat. And a legal "conscience clause" would prevent such a person from being fired.

Amazing how Republicans generally believe in the sanctity of letting the employer-class do whatever they want to employees and customers alike. If it's wrong, it'll be bad business the market will provide all the deterrence they need. Except when sensitive Christians are at stake.

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

So if a Christian Scientist wants to become an EMT and refuse to provide non-faith-based treatment, it's their legal right? Or would it just be OK if the only hospital in Spittle County, the one the ambulances took you to after the car crash because it was far and away the closest one, openly ADVERTISED that medicine and surgery were the devil's tools and they weren't going to do any of that?

[phillip2637.livejournal.com]

Beyond the specific subject, I'm amazed to see a sentence that gives religion *no* special priority over beliefs that come from other sources. I love it, but am having a seriously hard time accepting that it's right in front of my eyes.

[hiddenriver.livejournal.com]

> So do we have a pool on which Big Name Right-Winger is the
> first to scream about "activist judges"?

Damn-skippy! Especially since two out of those three judges were named by that liberal whacko, George W. Bush.

Um, wait...what?

Re: My favorite analogy

[awfulhorrid.livejournal.com]

Actually I know a vegetarian who works at the deli counter of a Jewel food store. She doesn't really have a problem with other people eating meat, although she does have to think back a bit when people ask her for recommendations.

[delazan.livejournal.com]

Our Governor in Wisconsin also signed legislation to that effect.
-L.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

When has consistency or logic figured into having and provoking emotional reaction? (Besides, GWB failed conservatism, Dont'cha Know. After all, conservatism itself Cannot Fail.) (Pardon me while I wash my virtual mouth out, after saying that, even in sarcasm.)

[jovan-scorn.livejournal.com]

I remember a similar story years back about a pharmacist refusing to fill an order not for a contraceptive but for a painkiller for someone he highly suspected was abusing it or selling it. The article ended after the pharmacist in question tried to share his suspicions with other pharmacists in the area who were apathetic for lack of a better word and had no desire to deny any transaction not matter how suspicious.

Re: My favorite analogy

[alverant.livejournal.com]

"Except when sensitive Christians are at stake."

Yep, I don't remember any of these pro-conscience clause people complaining when Muslim cab drivers were told they had to take customers even if they carried booze or had seeing eye dogs. Conservatives always seem to want to make an exception when their sensibilities are negatively affected and they have to follow the same rules as the rest of us.