I've read several stories regarding the new pro-life drugstores that have sprung up in two or three places. It seems to me that such places are the perfect antidote to the harangue about pharmacists who don't want to dispense abortifacients at retail chains. Call it a free market solution to the right of conscience, if you will.
But pro-abortion (and they are pro-abortion because of their stance) supporters don't see it that way. Not only do they believe pharmacists should be required by law to dispense Plan B, birth control pills, and other medicines regardless of their personal beliefs, they want any options for pro-life pharmacists banned and these workers jailed. Don't believe me? Just read this feministing post and the comments and you'll get an idea what the real "pro-choice" supporters want.
"There's a difference between walking around, being offensive, and medical professionals intentionally denying their patients the standard of care. The first is constitutionally protected, the second is malpractice. Malpractice is not a "right" protected by an "open society." And if there's a conflict between your conscience and your job, the law solves the problem pretty well - you have a right to freedom of conscience, but you don't have a right to a pharmacists license."
"nothing would make me happier than a whole bunch of these opening up, then failing most spectacularly. think "pharmacist with $100,000 in student loans and seven children (because s/he doesn't use birth control) in a studio apartment because they refused to get over themselves" kind of failing."
"This shit needs to be illegal. If the doctor prescribes it, it is the pharmacist's obligation to provide it. Not choice. Obligation."
"Pharmacists need licenses. You deny a legal prescription, you lose your license. Period."
"This is just absolute bullshit and I'm all for people opening up their own private businesses but this is crap. You're a PHARMACIST, your JOB is to fill the prescription that the DOCTOR wrote. You are NOT the doctor and you haven't TALKED to the doctor so you don't know what the fuck is going on between the patient and the DOCTOR so it's none of your goddamn business what it's for. I don't care how much "research" YOU'VE done, either step aside or quit.
"This has absolutely nothing to do with "saving" babeez or women (love how he had to throw that in there) but keeping people, women especially, in line when it comes to sex."
Many of the commenters dismissed the notion that pharmacists dispense medications other than contraceptives and just fell into the whole "if you don't want to dispense contraceptives, don't be a pharmacist!" trap.
no one puts a gun to anyone's head and tells them they must be a pharmacist or perish: if you have ethical hangups about filling prescriptions for contraception, you should really work in a different field.
I'm sure these same commenters would agree with mandatory abortion technique training for medical students (see here for more info). Hey, so what if you're a podiatrist? The Hippocratic Oath requires you to care for the sick! Just don't read the part about not giving a woman an abortion! Must've been a misogynist!
I think pro-life pharmacies are a great idea. If you want contraceptives, you can go to CVS or a grocery store. If you don't support doling out contraceptives to 14-year-olds (with a prescription!) or consider Plan B to be killing a life, then these pharmacies provide an alternative. Unlike the shriekers complaining that, somehow, these pharmacies will take over America, it's far more likely that a pro-life pharmacy would be the sort of boutique business you'll find in large cities, not in rural areas.
|