Just imagine that every month you are in so much pain that you can hardly get out of your bed unless you take the medicine that you doctor has prescribed for you. When you go to the pharmacy to get your refill, not only does the pharmacist refuse to fill it for you, he takes your prescription so you cannot have it filled at another pharmacy. He claims that he is morally obligated because he does not personally believe dispensing this particular drug. You are now left without an alternative.
Once a doctor has written a prescription for a patient, a pharmacist should not have the right to refuse that patient medication whether it be the “morning-after” pill or birth control. If a pharmacist does not personally believe in dispensing a medication they should hand the prescription off to a pharmacist that does or call in the prescription to the closest pharmacy. Under no circumstances should the pharmacist take a patient’s prescription, give them a moral lecture or impede the patient’s ability to get the prescription given to them by their doctor.
A recent problem in the American Pharmaceutical world is that more and more pharmacists are refusing to dispense drugs they claim perform early abortions including the “morning-after” pill and birth control pills. The pharmacist may refuse to dispense drugs on moral grounds saying that they will not contribute to abortion when the pharmacist in actuality has no idea why the drugs are being dispensed in the first place. Birth control pills are not always dispensed for the prevention of conception with other uses ranging from treatment of endometriosis and painful periods to treatment of acne. A pharmacist, not having gone to medical school, does not have the authority to state whether or not a person should be able to take a certain medication. A women’s decision whether or not to get pregnant is very personal with factors ranging in such as still being school, insufficient income to care for a child, timing--not ready to have a child or even physical endangerment to herself. A pharmacists does not have the power or the right to make that decision for anyone other than themselves or their spouse.
Most American pharmacists have no problem dispensing birth control. Their problem lies with the so called “morning-after” pill that can help prevent a pregnancy up to seventy-two hours after intercourse. It is standard procedure in America for a doctor to prescribe the “morning-after” pill for any rape victim. A pharmacist, just by looking at a patient, cannot tell whether their prescription is for carelessness or for reasons beyond their control. A woman who is raped should not have to suffer the consequences of someone else’s actions and therefore should be administered the morning after pill is she so chooses to take it. Since a pharmacist does not have the right to violate privacy he cannot refuse the prescription to either type of woman.
Pharmacists, if unwilling to fill a patient’s prescription, should find some other way for that patient to obtain their prescription because it is not their right to make it impossible for someone to receive the medication prescribed by their doctors. A pharmacist does not know the reasons for the prescribing of a drug and should not second guess the person that knows a patients medical history and needs. What the pharmacists fail to realize is that it is the high percentage of birth control prescriptions that keep the abortion rates the lowest they have been, You can not have it both ways, low abortions rates and low birth control consumption rates.