"Pro-life" pharmacy denies contraception

"Right of conscience" ?? I think it is more like the prerogative to infringe on my right to liberty, right?? are we confusing what a right is here?? how are there pharmacists (scientists?) who believe that they must infringe upon the rights we hold as consumers?? the right to choice, anybody??

Cmon, don't we have a division of labor?? morality is to be taught by parents to children. Scientists and pharmacists are to teach and fill our needs that are quite close to the only positive rights the government provides us with, education and health.

In all, don't infringe upon me because of your moral dilemma. Be a pharmacist.

It's disgusting how people think they can easily play the role of "God," and control what others do. Live and let live, or live and let abort.

sadly enough as long as it is a privately owned pharmacy this can happen. Even in public pharmacies the pharmacist can refuse to sell you these items, however, another member of staff must step in.

Unfortunately in this case, capitalism is capitalism, and any store owner can refuse to sell what he doesn't wish to. All he is doing is losing sales, as I'm sure another store will step in to supply the people's demands.

i was helping a friend out, who had an oops, by going to a rite-aid to pick up Plan B for her (the morning after pill). rite-aid sells it, but they keep it behind the counter of the pharmacy. i was shocked when i actually got CARDED to buy it! (i'm 28, btw, so it wasnt a problem) if i was 16, would they have told me no?! it would be scarey enough to be that young and make a mistake (no condom, broken condom, forgot bcp, ect); to be that young and try to be RESPONSIBLE, just to be told no, i can't imagine. i couldn't believe it. i'll no longer shop there.

So he is choosing not to sell something and that is infringing on other peoples rights?
Wouldn't we be infringing on his rights to force him to sell something?

It's as if a Muslim or a Jew working in a supermarket refused to sell pork because of his beliefs. If anything in your job goes against your beliefs and this leads you to refuse to do that part of your job which goes against your beliefs, you're in the wrong job and need to change to a new one.

> Is it not a pharmacist's responsibility to put their patient's needs ahead of their personal beliefs?

No

> So he is choosing not to sell something and that is infringing on other peoples rights?
> Wouldn't we be infringing on his rights to force him to sell something?

Well put.

> If anything in your job goes against your beliefs and this leads you to refuse to do that part of your job which goes against your beliefs, you're in the wrong job and need to change to a new one.

You are everything that is wrong with the world. Perhaps if your activities cause you to need to do something that goes against other people's beliefs, your doing it wrong? Who is to say that you are right? Who are you to decide what pharmacists can believe? You arrogant, dense, ignorant person.

> i was shocked when i actually got CARDED to buy it!

I am shocked that people think they are adult enough to get into trouble, but not adult enough to carry the weight of finding and knowing where they can get a pill from. They expect the whole world to come to their aid.

It sounds like a huge howl of empty, impotent, angry futile whining.

> Unfortunately in this case, capitalism is capitalism

While you are on the mark, you don't need to say 'unfortunately', unless you disagree with these freedoms?

Finally:

> I think it is more like the prerogative to infringe on my right to liberty, right??
> must infringe upon the rights we hold as consumers?? the right to choice, anybody??

This is the single most tragic yet funny thing I have ever read, ever, in the whole of ever.

Rights you hold as consumers? This is delightful! The right to choice? You have lots of rights to chose to do anything in your life, you have absolutely zero rights to expect that drug companies will fix it for you.

Rights to liberty? They only come with rights to screw up. You have the right to liberally screw up, but ZERO rights to expect anyone to help you out afterwards.

You are all that is wrong with the world. Thank you.

Go. To. Another. Pharmacy. Duh. Duh. Duh.

yeah, or dry hump.

at least it wasn't the morning after pill

but yeah, what a tool.

What a terrifying photo.

i read where some of the chain pharmacies are requiring newly hired pharmacists to sign employment contracts that require them to abide by store policy on filling prescriptions.

I wonder if any of these limited service pharmacies will be able to get contracted with major health insurance providers.

a pharmacist has an obligation under his or her state liscensure to dispense what ever drug is written in a valid prescription
they do not have a right to portray themselves as pharmacist and offer moral judgement or advice
that can only happen as a private citizen.also if they own the pharmacy they do not have to carry it,but their again
they are acting as buisness owners not pharmacist

Bravo!

A man decides to open up his own store, in this case, a Pharmacy.

And you are going to tell him what he can do with it?

Ummm....

I think there is a problem here.....

Is he breaking any laws by NOT selling contraceptives?

NO

Is there any other law that says any store HAS TO
SELL a certain item?

NO

All that will happen here is that those folks who want contraceptives will have to find them somewhere else!

If you don't like it...go somewhere else,,,

Real funny how many folks think that they have a right to ...

Expect everyone else to provide the means necessary for self control....

If you are that worried about having a child out of wedlock then by all means practice a little self control.

Hey, it's not my body it's yours...figure it out!

i find it objectionable that a pharmacy would not provide this pill or pills,but as a privately owned pharmacy has a right to do so .if you work for them you have a legal obligation/also contractural

this guy can believe whatever he wants but he needs to realize that he lives in a society where people have sex for pleasure. instead of turning his nose up to people in need of birth control he should praise them for being sexually responsible. is he going to deny blood pressure medicine to someone in need because he believes those people just shouldnt have eaten all those hamburgers and fries?

yet another example of religious belief interfereing with common sense.

OK, Christian Scientists will now be opening drug stores that fill no perscriptions at all but prosyletize to the customers coming in that they just aren't thinking about God right or they wouldn't be sick in the first place.

Let's see how long these pharmacies last. They won't be getting business from the approximately 80% of Catholic women who use contraceptives, or from the hypocritical Evangelicals who don't practice what they preach and would get a morning after pill in a minute rather than admit they were adulterous, or have "promiscuous" daughters, or that the dads will be the ones handing out condoms to their sons so they can become men by getting laid.

Doesn't it seem like just about every week another hypocritical so-called religious leader is caught with his or her pants down, sobbing - not because they did wrong, but because they got caught? But they're the first ones telling everyone else how to live and what they can or cannot do with their bodies.

Abstinance programs work about as well as the rhythm method did. Rapists and incestuous families rarely think about safe sex, and these holier-than-thou "pharmacists" would still take it upon themselves to tell victims what to do with their bodies even after they've already been horribly traumtized by someone else who thought they had the right to do whatever they wanted to them against their will.

Bottom line: if you think eating meat is a sin, don't apply for a job at a meat department and refuse to sell meat and lecture the customers about their sinfulness and then sue when you get fired. How stupid is that?

If you take a job at a pharmacy, be prepared to fill any legal perscriptions or get a different job. You knew when you became a pharmacist what they job was - to fill legal perscriptions.

Or find a pharmacy that will not stock those items and simply tell the clients you don't carry them. But lecturing clients because they don't share your belief system is stepping over the line. What I believe is none of your damn business, so if you don't want me out front of your no birth control stores or at your counter hollering about why my beliefs are better than yours, show a little respect and keep your beliefs to yourself!

Stories like this disgust me. True the owners of business have the right to refuse service to anyone and they stock their stores according to their orders. But what concerns me is they don't think of the right that teenagers have which is access to safe sex! If my child(God forbid) ever went behind my back to to have sex when they are unexperienced and scared I don't want some pharmacist plowing the word of God into them about abstinence. IT DOESN'T WORK!!!!!!! CHILDREN are still having sex. Now they can have unsafe sex? Not cool.

Though I don't agree with this man, I applaud him for standing up for what he thinks is wrong in the only way he can. People still have the right to use contraceptives if they wish, but he has every right to not supply them if he doesn't think it's ethical.

It's his pharmacy after all.

They sell Kools by theregister though

I bet he hands out the viagra.

Now of course as the private owner of a business, a merchant has the right to decide what to sell and what not to sell in his or her own store. The problem is that many of these pharmacies are opening in small towns, where there are no other places available to fill prescriptions. According to the story, some stores are not only refusing to sell Plan B, but also birth control pills and condoms. Is it fair for the sexual health of the local population to suffer, because of one person's beliefs?

The problem with a pharmacy is that it is, whether owned by a larger organization or privately owned, a kind of medical facility. Though no Rx is needed for a contraceptive, this pharmacists actions make me wonder...

Would he deny HIV medication to someone under his moral obligation because he thought that the person receiving the medication was homosexual?

I would think that the standard counter argument would have to do with denying needles to heroin addicts. However, the difference between a contraceptive and a needle for a drug user are very distinct. Giving a needle to someone who you know, not suspect, is going to shoot up is unethical because you are encouraging an illegal activity. On top of that it doing so would be counter productive to helping people stay healthy, which I think is one of the primary functions of medical facilities including pharmacies.

But what this boils down to is how pharmacies are seen as medical facilities to the law. Are privately owned pharmacies and the like viewed as hospitals and therefor not capable of denying needed medical treatment? Or do they fall under the category of a store, and retain the right to refuse service?

By the by, when I say "denying needed medical treatment." I am not applying to day to day contraceptives. I am wondering what would happen if a woman was raped, too ashamed to go to the hospital and get a rape kit (yes, such things are possible because it would seem that being raped is a humiliating thing) and went to a pharmacy such as this for the morning after pill to make sure she didn't carry her attackers child. I'm not saying that such things are common, I'm just saying that such things happen.

To shroomfairy--

That is another interesting point the story makes. Some of these "pro-life" pharmacies will refuse to sell emergency contraception, condoms, birth control pills, etc., but will sell Viagra. How is it ok to provide for male reproductive issues, but completely disregard those of women? Some women need birth control pills for health reasons besides preventing pregnancy.

soo, this man isn't selling contraception because its wrong to stop Gods will and God wants me to have a baby at 20....but he sells allergy medicine and fills Aderall prescriptions because God does not want me to be ADD or allergic to grass...like he made me....i'm waaay lost

Is this person having control issues or does he think he is on some moral high road?
If it's the latter, he might want to consider a career change. People go to the health care (physical) providers for help with problems, not moral judgement or religious debate.

If they want the right to refuse selling birth control then it is their loss. But... they should also remove from their stores all other forms of birth control such as condoms, along with all other personal pleasure products such as Ky and other lubricants. Even going as far as refusing to sell and/or carry Viagra and other ED products.

IF one single store that has refused to fill a prescription for the pill had done this I would be OK with it. This has NOT been the case.

There are cases where the pill is prescribed to regulate abnormal menstrual cycles instead of preventing pregnancy. In those cases refusal to fill those prescription is the same as refusing insulin to a diabetic.

"Anesthesiologists have refused to assist in sterilizations."

That's way beyond pro-life.

I agree that it is his business, and he can cry if he wants to. But that doesn't mean we can't point out that he's a horrible human being for denying people something they'd need, and he has every ability to provide. Rights aside, this person should be shamed and ashamed.

Hmmm...

Ever been a retailer or have your parents been
in retail?

If not, you need to listen to those who have:)

And for much of my life, my family was.

If you decide to operate your own business you have a right to do it the way you want to.

Your customers or lack of them will determine your fate in the business world.

Abstinence would have solved the problem.

based on this story, I am compelled by my conscience to boycott DMC Pharmacy, If I ever come across one, and I urge everyone to do the same.

Little weasel. It isn't like he ever needed birth control of any kind. He is just bitter.

Wow, lotta talk about rights. Maybe some of you should figure out what is a right and what is not.

Guy wants to exercise his freedom of religion (a right, BTW), so exercise your freedom to shop wherever you want. You want to exercise a right, go ahead and assemble to protest.

Right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.....well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad, right?