There should be a Pharmacists for Life law

[jmowreader]

I keep seeing all this shit about pharmacists who won't carry birth control pills, emergency contraception or other drugs necessary to women's health. Normally these pharmacists rely on "deeply held beliefs" as their justification. (An aside: I can't be the only one who's noticed the only "deeply held belief" that isn't somehow protected is the one that says there's no god.)

So...to protect the pharmacists' deeply held beliefs, while at the same time protecting MY deeply held belief that these medications should be as widely available as aspirin, I propose a Pharmacists for Life law.

It will have these components:

1. Any pharmacist who cannot for any reason carry birth control pills or emergency contraception shall declare his or her business to be a Pharmacy for Life.

2. A pharmacist who carries these medications will declare his or her business to be a Full Line Pharmacy.

3. A Pharmacy for Life must bear a symbol on each customer entrance. The symbol will be the traditional "Rx" pharmacy logo overlaid on a Christian "fish" symbol. The words "Pharmacy for Life" will form a circle around the symbol. Below it there will be the following text: "PHARMACY FOR LIFE. In keeping with the moral values of the owner of this pharmacy, oral contraceptives are not sold at this location." The center of the Pharmacy for Life logo will be at eye level for a 65-inch-tall woman wearing casual shoes.

3a. A Full Line Pharmacy must bear a symbol on each customer entrance. It will be the traditional "Rx" pharmacy logo with the letters "FLP" in the counter of the R. The words "Full Life Pharmacy" will form a circle around the symbol. Below it there will be the following text: "FULL LINE PHARMACY: This pharmacy carries medications to include oral contraceptives."

4. Pharmacists operating in communities with one pharmacy may not become Pharmacists for Life unless a Full Line Pharmacy opens in their community.

5. In a community with one Full Line Pharmacy, Pharmacies for Life may not open earlier, close later or operate for more days of the week than the Full Line Pharmacy does. Further, the Full Line Pharmacy must carry a selection of prescription and over-the-counter drugs, medical supplies, sundries and other items one would traditionally find in a drugstore.

(Explanation of number 5. This will prevent the fundies from building a shed, hanging an Rx plaque on the side, putting a cash register, three lipsticks and a case of aspirin on a card table beside the door, declaring it to be the town's full line pharmacy then never opening it, just so they can say they have a FLP in town.)

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. I'd go a bit further -

Since these very, very religious folks have made it clear that they will only follow God's law, they must stop selling all medications immediately, since ailments visited upon people are nothing but signs that they have sinned, and the ailments, diseases, injuries, should be allowed to proceed on their own merits, without interference with God's Intended Plan.

Now, let's just sit back and wait for the first pharmacist with appendicitis or swine flu to show up, shall we?

[BlooInBloo]

2. Fuck that. They don't deserve the title "pharmacist" at all.

[rurallib]

3. I'd say that if they do not want to sell the drugs, get into another line of business

[napi21]

4. I think a pharmacist shold be allowed to refuse to dispense

any prescription that they feel compromises their beliefs, BUT the owner of the pharmacy MUST have another pharmacist on duty to fill that script.

My thinking is that a Dr. is not mandated to perform abortions or any surgery, no lawyer HAS to take a case he doesn't want (exception for public defenders & DA's). In fact, no professional that I can think of is mandated to perform services for anyone they dont wish to take on.

[jmowreader]

6. I'm trying to be nice here but still take care of everyone's needs

I should have also thrown in that the Full Service Pharmacy has to be where consumer stores are--they can't put it between the motor rebuilding shop and the slaughterhouse, they have to have it up where people shop for regular merchandise.

I really don't think we should try for the "dispense this or get out of the pharmacy business" angle--because if we did and were successful, the fundamentalists WOULD go into a smallish town, buy up all the pharmacies, then declare that because they were being "forced" to sell something they didn't believe in they were closing all the drugstores in town. They'd pull this just to prove a point--okay, the point would be they're assholes, but still...

I think that if these drugstores were marked, a whole lotta people would take their business elsewhere. "You don't sell birth control? Fine--I can get shampoo at another store too!" After Pharmacists for Life became Pharmacists for Poverty, there'd be less of them.

[BlooInBloo]

7. Anyone who feels they cannot do their job for any reason can quit...

There's no problem to be solved.

Why people are talk about finding a way to not fire people who refuse to do their job utterly mystifies me.

[Political Tiger]

5. Instead of "Pharmacy for Life" they should be called "Pharmacy Against Choice."

n/t

[BlooInBloo]

8. I prefer "fired".

[Warren Stupidity]

11. license revoked

[BlooInBloo]

12. I'm ok with that, too.

[peace frog]

9. +100

Exactly.

[Warren Stupidity]

10. Nope.

If they wish to operate a licensed pharmacy they have to serve all customers.

[Warpy]

13. I'd go a bit further

Since all their morbid religious scruples are directed against women, their pharmacies shall be licensed as PHARMACIES FOR MEN, ONLY.

After all, their morbid religious scruples put the lives of women at high risk, meaning they should never be able to use that word in their advertising or designation.

As for the fundies opening a perfume counter next to a men's pharmacy and declaring it a full line pharmacy, that is taken care of by state licensing requirements. Full line pharmacies must already stock certain basic items, including those the pharmacist considers himself too prissy to dispense.