Wyoming Regulation Could Allow Druggists To Refuse To Dispense AIDS Meds

[davidinalameda]

http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/09/092805wyDrugs.htm

A proposed regulation which would allow pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions based on the druggists moral views could be used to deny HIV/AIDS patients live saving medication a health advocate warns.

The Wyoming Board of Pharmacy is considering the rule change amid pressure by conservative groups opposed to the sale of contraceptives and birth control pills.

But, the regulation could be used to deny service in many other areas critics charge.

[kenny blankenship]

1. Hello 14th Amendment 'equal protection' clause lawsuit!

[kestrel91316]

2. The fundies may have a problem here - if they pass a law

that says something vague about the pharmacist's "moral views", then that could allow them to discriminate against peolpe with ANY STD, people with AIDS, people with drug/alcohol problems, people on psych meds, all due to religious beliefs, and that would eventually be found unconstitutional. If they pass a law specifying birth control for women can be denied due to "moral views", then they could get into trouble under Equal Protection also. Can't single out women as a class for denial of medication.

[mduffy31]

3. Question

What if it is a married couple and the woman wants birth control? My wife is on the pill because we can't afford kids right now, but if there was some self righteous pharmacist is going to tell us how to live our life? I know that the defense is that it makes single women more promiscuous, but I know lots of married couples who want to wait to have kids. I thought sex was only supposed to be within a marriage, but every sexual encounter doesn't have to result in a child. I know that the right would like that, more kids to eventually join the army.

[HockeyMom]

10. Bush Administration Sex Education

Abstinence Only Until Marriage and Faithfulness In Marriage. Do they think married people only need birth control if they are fooling around?

[sui generis]

4. as far as I know

not everyone who has HIV or AIDS got it by being gay or immoral. I guess Ryan White was an immoral little eight year old with hemophilia. Before she died, Paul Michael Glaser's wife, Elizabeth, who got it from a blood transfusion at Cedars-Sinai was immoral.

Also, refusing to dispense any drug to someone because you think they're immoral, or because you suspect they are gay?

Oh . . . this is rich, and in Wyoming no less. How is refusing to dispense someone life saving medicine DIFFERENT than beating them nearly to death and then leaving them to die on a fence?

These people aren't pharmacists - they need their licenses pulled along with their human card. What next, they don't dispense to people with green eyes? To latino or black Americans?

edited to add, AND ANOTHER THING:

If morality is the test, then I guess if I were a pharmacist I could just say that protestants are immoral and refuse to serve them. Just because I could.

Any law that allows you to discriminate can be used to discriminate against you. When are these people going to figure it out?

[davidinalameda]

5. they won't figure it out until they get hit with these laws

they think that they only apply to "others"

let them get a taste of their own "medicine" so to speak

[mitchtv]

8. well you know, those Latinos..

MAY be illegal, and that maybe immoral
"that ends in T and that rhymes with P
and that stands for Pool"

[Dark]

6. So if I were a pharmacist, and I thought Fundies were evil. . .

could I deny them their anti-psychotics?

It's not like they work anyways. All they need is prayer.

[kweerwolf]

7. Oh please! We need MORE fundies on anti-psychotics already! n/t

[dsc]

9. If this were limited to pharmacist who owned the pharmacy

then that would be acceptable but if this right is being given to any and all pharmacists then it is way over broad.