Science > Abortion > Moral Judgments on Birth Control Endangering Women's Lives
| Topic: |
Science > Abortion |
| User: |
"james g. keegan jr." |
| Date: |
06 Apr 2005 07:48:40 PM |
| Object: |
Moral Judgments on Birth Control Endangering Women's Lives |
Moral Judgments on Birth Control Endangering Women's Lives
By Bonnie Erbe
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Tuesday 05 April 2005
Here's an outrage for you. There's a growing movement among
pharmacists and even doctors to refuse to provide legal and necessary
health services.
Let's start with pharmacists. In at least 10 states, they have
refused to fill prescriptions for birth control, citing moral and
religious beliefs. In so doing, they have incited a nationwide outcry
by women (and their men) who rely on such basic medical services.
According to Judy Waxman, vice president of the National Women's
Law Center, "Unfortunately, what is happening is that pharmacists are
deciding they do not want to fill the prescription for birth control,
which means it's the woman who is in every case going to be the person
who is refused her prescription. And that is clearly sex
discrimination."
While I don't fully buy Waxman's view (it hurts these women's male
partners too, since they may not wish to become fathers against their
will), it gets worse than that. Some pharmacists "just say no" to
filling the prescriptions. Others don't offer these women alternative
locations where they can get them filled. A few zealous pharmacists
have actually gone off the deep end and refused to return the
prescriptions to the women for whom they were written. That's
obstruction - someone who is licensed by the state to provide a medical
service (to wit, the pharmacist) has instead barred a customer from
obtaining that service.
Although pharmacists can face penalties for obstructing state laws,
only one case has gone before a judge. And according to the National
Women's Law Center, four states allow pharmacists to legally refuse
service. Wisconsin is considering expanding its law.
The type of birth control being denied to customers is at issue,
too. Many of these women are filling prescriptions for birth control
pills, but in high doses they become so-called emergency contraception.
Or they're taking RU-486, the "morning after pill." If not taken within
a relatively short time after unprotected sex, emergency contraception
doesn't work.
The Washington Post recently recounted the story of one woman
refused these services, "By the time Suzanne Richards, 21, finally got
another pharmacy to fill her morning-after pill prescription - after
being rejected by a drive-through Brooks pharmacy in Laconia, N.H., one
late Saturday night in September - the 72 hours had long passed."
All this is driven by America's overarching evangelical community.
Most religious and even most evangelical Americans are satisfied with
abiding by their own religious mores. But the extreme right wing is
trying to force the rest of us who don't agree with their tortuous,
constricted view of scripture to live by their self-imposed rules
nonetheless.
My question back to these same pharmacists would be, who's guarding
the condom aisle? Do their "consciences" prevent them from filling
prescriptions for Viagra and other male sex drugs, especially when
unmarried men want to buy them? If they're going to make moral
judgments about prescription drugs, let them work at church-run
hospitals, instead of in commercial pharmacies. Better yet, drop out of
the profession entirely and become missionaries.
In Wisconsin, state law gives doctors and pharmacists the right to
refuse to perform abortions or sterilizations on moral or religious
grounds. A new bill expands this right to six more activities. The
right-to-life Web sites are spinning up into heaven over this, and over
the fact they've marshaled the resources to push 11 more state
legislatures to consider such measures.
Personally, I keep waiting for the day when such zealotry backfires
and tips the weight of American public opinion against religious
oppression, because that is what it is quickly becoming. If
state-licensed health care workers can impose their religious views on
Americans who do not share them, what is the difference between the
United States and the Iranian theocracy? Even differences between us
and the Taliban wear tenuously thin. And the word "democracy" no longer
applies.
http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/040605WB.shtml
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| User: "Robert J. Kolker" |
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| Title: Re: Moral Judgments on Birth Control Endangering Women's Lives |
06 Apr 2005 07:57:08 PM |
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james g. keegan jr. wrote:
Let's start with pharmacists. In at least 10 states, they have
refused to fill prescriptions for birth control, citing moral and
religious beliefs. In so doing, they have incited a nationwide outcry
by women (and their men) who rely on such basic medical services.
These pharmacists who won't sell contraceptives are in the minority.
Just go to a competing drug store, or use internet to order what is
necessarhy. This is not a problem.
The result is that these recalcitrant druggists lose business. If they
do that enough they go out of business.
Bob Kolker
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