This Issue of Pharmacists Refusing to Fill Certain Prescriptions Should Not Be An Issue

Steve at The Carpetbagger Report is right: this should NEVER have been allowed to become an issue. If pharmacists want to refuse, then they're welcome to go into another line of work.

If there's a logical defense for this, I can't think of it.

The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint on Tuesday against three pharmacists in upstate New York claiming that the pharmacists "refused to fill prescriptions for refill doses of emergency contraception," the Associated Press reports. What is particularly striking about this case — as opposed to the run-of-the-mill pharmacists who refuse to fill E.C. — is that the women needed refills.

The pharmacists apparently had no religious or moral objections to E.C. the first time around; it was that second time that proved the women's behavior was "irresponsible" as Andrea Barcomb, a CVS supervisor, put it to the AP. (Actually, it seems to us that taking preventive measures as soon as possible to avoid unwanted pregnancy is the very definition of responsibility.) As Elisabeth Benjamin, director of NYCLU's Reproductive Rights program, told the AP, "these refusals seem to just be based solely on moralistic assumptions of women's sexuality."

I will never, ever understand how this issue became a legitimate controversy. Pharmacists, by virtue of their professional responsibilities, agree to fill prescriptions. Doctors prescribe a remedy, a patient seeks that remedy, a pharmacist provides the remedy. It's a pretty simple system.

If a pharmacist realizes that he or she may be called on to perform tasks with which they're uncomfortable, this person has a choice: do the job or find a different job in which these moral quandaries won't be an issue. In other words, if you don't like filling prescriptions, don't become a pharmacist.

This New York example is particularly egregious because the pharmacists were willing to provide emergency contraception once — everyone, apparently, is entitled to a single mistake — but they took it upon themselves to say twice is too many. Women can prevent one pregnancy, but after that, they're out of luck. These pharmacists created their own one-strike-and-you're-out policy, and they expect it to be a legitimate policy stance.