Pharmacists across the country are allowing their moral beliefs to dictate some of their pharmaceutical practices.
Much to the surprise of many female prescription holders, this means their pharmacists may refuse to fill their prescriptions for birth control or the morning-after pill.
Advocates for women’s reproductive rights fear this may be a growing trend among pharmacists and is gaining support among state legislatures.
| The Issue Pharmacists are refusing to fill contraceptive prescriptions, citing morals. |
They have reason to fear.
Three states have laws that give a pharmacist the right to refuse, and 10 states have considered one.
In some of these cases, including one in Madison, the pharmacists have even refused to return the prescription slip to the patient so she can seek an alternative pharmacy that will fill the prescription.
As a result, women are missing pills for a day or more, which can throw off the effectiveness of the contraceptive for a week or longer. In a more extreme case, a Texas woman was denied a morning-after pill – an emergency post-intercourse contraceptive – despite explaining to her pharmacist she had just been a victim of rape.
Of course, a pharmacy is a business and has the right to conduct business as desired, which includes the right of refusal, but does not have the right to impart moral beliefs on a patient by withholding prescription slips.
Alternative arrangements must be made available to the patient. The pending bills regarding the issue that exist in several states should reflect this necessity by mandating that a different pharmacist be on hand to fill the prescription if another refuses or an entirely different pharmacy be in close proximity.
In rural communities with only one pharmacy, however, this poses a problem in times of emergency. The morning-after pill only is effective in the 72 hours following intercourse. For women such as the rape victim from Texas who have little time to act and no alternative option, honoring emergency prescriptions must be mandatory by law.
We cannot allow the right of refusal to translate into a step backward for women’s reproductive rights.
