The Morning-After Pill and Pharmacist

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I am a student taking a policical science course and my teacher likes to bring up contorversial issues and this week we have the topic of the morning-after pill and pharmacist.

Here is the story we have to discuss:

A woman has concern that she might have become pregnant after being forced to have sex aganist her will.

The woman goes to the local Walgreens and presents the a prescription for the morning-after pill (also known as Plan B) to the pharmacist. The pharmacist, who is also president of the local Right-to-Life chapter, refuses to fill the prescription, on the grounds that filling the prescription will make him part of an abortion, which goes aganist his religious beliefs. He believes abortion to be unethical, and refuses to facilitate an abortion.

Does the pharmacist have the right to refuse treatment to this woman?

I’d appreciate any comments.
Thanks a lot!
God bless
 
(if I am not mistaken) The store itself has a right to not carry certain scripts - Target for example has a policy against plan B scripts - they also back a lot of right wing legislation - hence the policy in my opinion -
But if the store does not have a policy like this - The pharmacist who refused would have to have a pharmacist on hand to fill the script for him/her.

It would be very hard to keep employment though a pharmacist with these moral objections unless you find a store that doesn’t carry birth control condoms and plan b -
 
According to my knowledge of US law; the pharmacist denying the woman the prescription would be a violation of i believe the Civil Rights Act of 1988 or something like that which prohibits discrimination based on abortion; as well as going against the Court (US Supreme Court) decision of Roe V. Wade which legalized abortions. No the pharmacist does not have the right to deny her the prescription because his religion does not influence the law of the land. (Says a 15 year old in a law class)
 
kathleenmm said:
I
The woman goes to the local Walgreens and presents the a prescription for the morning-after pill (also known as Plan B) to the pharmacist. The pharmacist, who is also president of the local Right-to-Life chapter, refuses to fill the prescription, on the grounds that filling the prescription will make him part of an abortion, which goes aganist his religious beliefs. He believes abortion to be unethical, and refuses to facilitate an abortion.

Does the pharmacist have the right to refuse treatment to this woman?

I’d appreciate any comments.
Thanks a lot!
God bless
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if the pharmacist is an employee of the pharmacy, he has to follow the rules of his employment. If he knows his stuff he will also know there are other reasons those drugs are prescribed. If it is against his conscience to prescribe these drugs (and why then would he routinely fill Rx for contraceptives or other drugs), he has the option of finding another line of work.

If he works for a government agency he may have some conscience protection, and should ask a lawyer about his rights.

If he owns his own pharmacy he can set any policy he wants, as long as he abides by the laws regulating that business, but he has to publicize it and enforce it consistently.

In all 3 cases, he should probably ask a lawyer.
 
kathleenmm said:
refuses to fill the prescription, on the grounds that filling the prescription will make him part of an abortion,
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The sad part is that it may not make him part of an abortion. If, God forbid, I am raped today, I could take the “morning-after pill” and still remain faithful to the teaching of the Church.

I know that I have not ovulated, the “morning-after pill” would simply stop me from ovulating. 🤷

That said, most women looking for the morning after pill do not know if they have ovulated. So like puzzleannie said, a lawyer would be the place to start.
 
maryjk said:
The sad part is that it may not make him part of an abortion. If, God forbid, I am raped today, I could take the “morning-after pill” and still remain faithful to the teaching of the Church.

I know that I have not ovulated, the “morning-after pill” would simply stop me from ovulating. 🤷

That said, most women looking for the morning after pill do not know if they have ovulated. So like puzzleannie said, a lawyer would be the place to start.
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This is very true the pharm. really would have no way of knowing if they were contributing to an abortion or not.
They also would not know she had or had not been raped.

Also, in general when we give a women a script like this we generally tell them where to fill it or have it filled-
Usually a rape victim would have gotten this from a hospital and they would have filled the script for her -
Even a clinic would fill the script for her to avoid this

But in the off chance she went to her primary and her regular dr gave her a script they know which Pharmacies have polices against plan B and which do not …
They would never tell her to go to target for example -
And in all likely they would fax the script or send it in themselves to make sure not only that the pharmacy carried it but had it in stock.

I can’t foresee this even happening in most cases.

But should a pharmacist have moral objection to Plan B they can work at a pharmacy that does not carry it.
 
You really only need a script if you are under 17 -
You can get plan B without a script and I am pretty sure you can search online to see where to go- you don’t need a dr-
You would just go in and ask for it - pharmacies make it known if they do this or not.
You may want a script for INS to cover it but that depends on your INS-

You can also take regular birth control pills in place of plan B - If someone’s INS does not cover it and they need coverage a Dr might prescribe BC pills instead it works in the same way (not all pills those just certain brands)
depending on the type of BC pill it is you would just take (as an example) a dose of 5 at once and another dose of 5 or 3 depending on the type of pill -

So in reality a pharm could be contributing to an “abortion” just by filling a script of BC -

Most pharmacies make their plan B and birth control policies known when you are hired so I am would think the pharmacist could be fired for not complying … since it was known to them it is part of the job -
But i am not certain … I am just guess on the last part
 
My husband is a pharmacist and a very devout Catholic. In Utah, the morning after pill does not need a prescription anymore :mad: Nevertheless, a pharmacist has the right not to dispense the morning after pill as long as the patient can get it somewhere else or when there is a shift change at their pharmacy. I know several pharmacists who will not dispense the morning after pill, birth control, etc. It doest not violate any rights as long as the above conditions exist. I don’t know what the law is in other states, but here in Utah this is the case.

Hope that helps

God Bless
🙂
 
meemsdeherrera said:
My husband is a pharmacist and a very devout Catholic. In Utah, the morning after pill does not need a prescription anymore :mad: Nevertheless, a pharmacist has the right not to dispense the morning after pill as long as the patient can get it somewhere else or when there is a shift change at their pharmacy. I know several pharmacists who will not dispense the morning after pill, birth control, etc. It doest not violate any rights as long as the above conditions exist. I don’t know what the law is in other states, but here in Utah this is the case.

Hope that helps

God Bless
🙂
Click to expand...
I think this is true in most places that is how it is in MA …
Here most pharmacies make it known and there are pharmacies that don’t carry Plan B at all so it would be expected that anyone that objected would work elsewhere.

I think w birth control here in MA its the same as Utah there has to be someone on shift who will fill the script -

And I think its all over the US that you do not need a script for emergency contraceptive -
And I checked you can search online and it tells you where to do go to get it. It would be expected in those pharmacies that you would not be denied.
 
It is true you can get it online and that is very scary considering you don’t really know what you are getting. (FDA doesn’t monitor out of the US)

Pharmacists work under their own license, not the chains so technically they can refuse to fill or dispense anything that is questionable. It is up to the pharmacist on duty whether or not they want something going out under their license.
 
The pharmacist does not have to personally fill/dispense the prescription, as it is against their religious beliefs. However, the pharmacist must still somehow do their job. Some options are:

He/she can hand it to another pharmacist to fill; leave it to the next shift when another pharmacist will be there; or direct the person to another pharmacy to have it filled.

I have the same dilemma sometimes in my line of work (licensed psychotherapist), in that I cannot counsel someone on having an abortion. When I encounter these situations, I usually refer the patient to another colleague of mine who does not have a moral/religious prohibition on this.

Just my personal opinion.
 
Depends on the state, I’d say. Here in Illinois our former Governor ( a convicted criminal, btw) penned an executive order decreeing that all IL pharmacists employed in a pharmacy that offers ABC or abortifacient pills are obligated by the terms of their professional license to fill orders of this type. Refusal is grounds for license revocation.

It’s a horrible law that very nearly amounts to a ban on faithful catholic pharmacists in Illinois. Sure, you can still go open your own corner pharmacy and compete against Walgreens and CVS, great option, huh? :mad: But that’s about your only option for practicing here. Good luck.

Whoops! Look what I just found: forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?p=7730891#post7730891 That executive order might be toast! (unless its appealed, which it probably will be knowing our abortion-loving attorney general)
 
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