Pharmacists refusal to fill birth control prescriptions....

[FormerRepublican]

I'm going to tell you a personal story to illustrate why a pharmacist's refusal to fill a valid birth control prescription is total lunacy. I apologize in advance for the personal details.

About a month ago I went to a pharmacy and had a prescription for birth control pills filled with no problem. I'm 43 years old. Why did I have a prescription for birth control pills? Dysfunctional uterine bleeding.

You see, I ended up at the pharmacy after spending the day in the emergency room. I'd had a convulsion and almost passed out from blood loss. After they gave me IVs to stabilize things and did some tests, the doctor gave me the choice between birth control pills or specific hormone pills to control the bleeding. I chose the birth control pills because it was easier to remember to take them. When you take specific hormones, you have to count days in the month to figure out when you're supposed to take them, and I figured I'd screw that up right off the bat.

As far as a right wing wacko pharmacist is concerned, both treatments would have the same result on any conceived child - the child would be lost. However, if I didn't receive the treatment, my LIFE could be lost. Why would a life that already exists (mine) take a back seat to a life that hasn't even been conceived yet? How can they justify those ethics?

Why is it that a PHARMACIST gets the right to decide whether I live or die because he has moral objections to my medication that I don't even share? Why does he get the right to practice medicine without a license and decide what medications I should be allowed to take to control a medical problem? Why should some PHARMACIST expect that I would even disclose the medical problem to him that required the birth control pills in the first place?

When I went to fill my prescription at the pharmacy, the first thing the pharmacist said is 'you won't have any problem filling this here.' While I was grateful that I wouldn't have any problems, I let loose with a spiel on why it would be extremely stupid for a pharmacist to refuse to fill my prescription under the circumstances. I could tell it shook him up.

When a pharmacist decides to over-rule a physician's decisions, that pharmacist is playing god and deciding who has the right to live or die. Why should THEY have that right? Especially when they know NOTHING about the medical background of the customer who is there just to get a prescription filled?

We need to put a stop to this lunacy or the life at stake could be our own.

[dsc]

1. So let me get this straight

you got your perscription from the first pharmacist you tried. Which is what one would hope would happen. Frankly very few pharmacists are doing this and virtually no pharmacists who own the store, the only ones I would let do this. I am glad you got your drugs but I suspect that virtually no one is having significant problems getting drugs.

[really annoyed]

14. You'd be surprised

The common line from the pharmacy will be "we are out."

I work in a doctor's office - it happens often. It usually goes along with pharmacies that don't want to filled controlled prescriptions such as Valium.

I work for a PCP, so birth control pills are rarely prescribed by my boss.

However, I guess it varies from business to business.
:)

[dsc]

24. and you know they aren't out, how?

Valium is a high selling drug so it would likely be out from time to time. On edit, I can see a pharmacist soft shoeing a case of people going in too often for a drug but they really shouldn't.

[corbett]

15. 20 States Either Have Or Are Planning To Have Laws To Let 'Em Play God

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/women

[dsc]

23. and the numbers who will, are?

Incidently owner pharmacists already to play god by stocking drug A and not drug B.

[corbett]

25. Big Difference Between Not Stocking And Rejecting A Prescription

We're talking about a person who walks into a pharmacy with a valid prescription and is told that she can't have it filled there. That's quite different from a pharmacist who chooses which drugs to keep in stock. If he doesn't have an item, there's always FedEx.

As to the number of states, this chart is about 6 months old but gets you close to the current list of states wishing to codify this lunacy:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/daily/graphics/pharmacist_032805.html

[havocmom]

2. Take your comments, boil them down just a bit and send a thank you

with your comments as to WHY it is important that pharmacists do their job and not interject their personal agenda into the transactions to the company. Let them know how much you appreciate their professionalism at a time when too many do cowardly retreats at the urging of small but vocal groups who want to dictate morality while ignoring many facts.

Let them know you are pleased. Let them know why. Let them know you will be recommending them to others.

Sometimes, getting an atta-boy is sorely needed, even when they really are just doing their job. Let people know you appreciate good service professionally done.

[JAbuchan08]

3. We live personal lives and their "personal" beliefs are getting in the way

of your personal safety. On edit sorrry I skimmed I thought you had not gotten your drugs.

Let's hope no one has to go through a scenario like that

[Angry Girl]

4. Contact Target now with online Planned Parenthood letter!

http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/fillmypillsnow_target2

[FormerRepublican]

5. I actually sent an email to planned parenthood.

Their email form wouldn't allow me to tell my story, which I believe to be very important WRT refusal to fill a valid birth control prescription.

If they had refused me, I would have sued and I would not have stopped until I had everything the pharmacist owned and the state had yanked his license.

There is NO excuse for refusal. None. A pharmacist has no idea when I walk in what the medical problem is that requires drugs, and he should not have the right to refuse to provide my treatment.

Allowing this on moral grounds is lunacy that will eventually end with someone like me being harmed or dying.

[Angry Girl]

8. Yeah, their website is not well done at all

There are bad design flaws and they are hard to contact (I tried to report their website problems but gave up).

Unfortunately, a lot of women are too timid to speakj up for themselves. I promise you that if ever someone refuses one of my Rx's I will do my best to make up for their silence!

[MaineDem]

6. I've been in the same circumstance as you described

Luckily, I also had a pharmacist who had no problem giving me the pills. After what I had been going through I would have been beyond pissed if I had any trouble getting those pills!

I feel if pharmacists have some sort of moral question about performing their job they should become electricians or something. Get out of the friggin' profession if you have issues with it!

It should be of no concern to the pharmacist what reason the pills are being prescribed for! Fill the damn things as the doctor authorized.

[FormerRepublican]

7. Perhaps we should pass a law...

...that part of the licensure for a pharmacist is a willingness to fill prescriptions as a doctor orders regardless of moral objections.

If a pharmacist wannabe doesn't agree, no license.

[MaineDem]

9. Women should complain to the state licensing board

You just made me think of that.

These boards get very few letters. Women who are refused medication should write a letter of complaint to the state regulatory board. After a few letters they'll have to do something.

[dflprincess]

10. When a pharmacist overrules a physician

and refuses to refill a prescription, isn't s/he practicing medicine without a license?

The only time a pharmacist should refuse to fill is when the new prescription will react adversely with another drug the patient is taking. This happened to my friend's mom, her arthritis doctor prescribed something that wouldn't mix with a drug her internist had her on (the arthritis doctor had asked what else she was talking but she apparently omitted a drug or two) - though in that case the pharmacist called the doctor's office to ask about it.

[progressoid]

18. I was thinking the same thing. nt

[dretceterini]

19. I agree

and think you should file a complaint with the atty general of the state. The pharmacist IS practicing medicine without a lisence

[Chemical Bill]

11. I switched from CVS because they allow that. n/t

[MaineDem]

20. I think CVS changed that policy

I'm not 100% sure but I remember reading something on Planned Parenthood's website, I think.

[MaineDem]

26. CVS gets a thumbs up

I found the link.

http://www.saveroe.com/fillmypillsnow/scored.php

[Gloria]

12. I'm trying to imagine what it would be like if every teacher who didn't

want a particular kid in his/her class refused to teach. What would be the chances that the principal would heartily agree and remove the kid and stand up to a complaining parent? I bet a teacher would be told to shut up and deal with it and get no backup from a supervisor...and that later, the "black mark" would be used as a bludgeon against them.

Why should pharmacists be allowed to shirk their professional duties, for whatever reason?

[grannylib]

13. good point. I fear the next thing will be pharm's refusing to fill because

the maker of this drug or that ALSO makes BCpills, and they don't want to allow anyone who profits off BC to profit, period, so they refuse to fill your high blood pressure meds, or your insulin, or whatever...where the hell will it stop?

[The Doctor.]

16. That s precisely the argument I have given.

"What business do you have usurping the doctor-patient covenant?"
(Oh, and use the word 'covenant'... that's a killer with these jackasses.)

"What do you know about me that gives you that right?"

"Are you familiar with ALL of the medical conditions that a Doctor might treat with birth control pills?"

[mom cat]

17. Boycott Target..Christmas is coming.

[OneTwentyoNine]

28. No thanks,Target actually pays some wages around here.....

The thing to do is talk to management at that Target and have that ass FIRED. Boycotting Target around here means going back to WalMart which I refuse to do.

My daughter works for Target while going to HS,they started her out a $2.00 per hour more than the idiots over at Walmart who have probably been there for YEARS and she works part time. She's also received two raises over the 14 months she's been with them. I won't boycott Target over one screw loose pharmacist.

[glitch]

21. Pharmacists who refuse to fill bc prescriptions should be asked: why are

you pro-abortion? Do you own stock in private abortion providers?
Just to see if their heads explode.

[elehhhhna]

30. Again with the logic! Good point.

[eridani]

22. Check out the Planned Parenthood project

www.Fillmypillsnow.com

[Iris]

27. I used to kind of be understanding about the pharmacists who did this, but

now I'm not at all. I am getting a information (library) science degree and realize that by going into that profession, there is a certain ethical standard NOT to try to impose my opinions, values or will on other people seeking information. I'd say this goes double in the health/medical professions. If a person cannot function while remaining neutral on something like this, he picked the wrong profession.

Now, if this person wanted to start his own drug store that openly admitted they would not sell items that were not "christian" or whatever, than I might feel differently.

[AtomicKitten]

29. Another vignette about Target refusing to fill emergency contraception

Target refuses to fill woman's prescription for emergency contraception
from www.AMERICAblog.com

Target sucks.
http://www.saveroe.com/node/1714

From Planned Parenthood:

A 26-year-old Missouri woman was refused EC when she handed her prescription to a pharmacist at a Target store in Fenton, MO, on September 30. The woman was told by the pharmacist, “I won’t fill it. It’s my right not to fill it.” She was told that she could go to a local Walgreens instead. The woman said, “When the pharmacist told me she wouldn't , I went from disbelief to shock to anger. I guess I'm still pretty angry. It seems unbelievable to me that a medical professional could/would deny access to a federally approved drug and impose their personal beliefs in a professional setting. I am also grateful that I did not need it filled at that time. I don't know how it would be if I had just been raped or if the condom broke and I was a feeling confusion and panic anyway -- and then was denied access and told to go across the street.”

The national headquarters of Target has not responded to three PPFA attempts to clarify its policy on pharmacist refusals.

Who's next?

- Target pharmacists who don't want to fill prescriptions for customers who killed Christ?
- Target pharmacists who only dispense HIV medicine to "innocent victims" of AIDS?
- Target pharmacists who want proof that women were really raped, and that they didn't "deserve it," before they sell them emergency contraception?
- Or how about Target pharmacists (or cashiers) who are simply Jehovah's Witnesses? Can they refuse to sell any medicine to anyone, even aspirin?

*********************

What's At Stake?

The attack on women's rights has extended to the pharmacists' realm.

* In 2005, 14 states proposed legislation to regulate the relationship between pharmacist and patient — ignoring the relationship between doctor and patient. Eleven states sought to put women's health second.
* Four states have laws or regulations that permit pharmacist refusals.
* Even absent a legal right to refuse,refusals have been documented in California, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

[elehhhhna]

31. Is it me or does "You won't have trouble filling this here" sound

patronizing? As if it should be followed by "...little lady!"

WhyTF are we even HAVING this discussion? Theopublicans have brought us to this level--back to the 1950's.

Unless you have a really open, friendly relationship w/ that pharmacist, I think he should have kept that comment to himself.

[kath]

32. This is what happens when the Talibornagains have a stranglehold on our

government.

eek.