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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4425603.stm
Pharmacists ‘denying birth control’
A growing number of pharmacists across America are refusing to dispense birth control and the morning-after pill, because it goes against their religious and moral convictions.
This development has led to state legislatures across the country taking action, either to protect women’s rights to obtain birth control or to uphold the pharmacist’s right to refuse it.
The issue has become heated in several states, which already have laws allowing pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for contraceptives, including birth control pills.
In Arizona, the House of Representatives recently approved legislation that would put into place a conscience clause for pharmacists who have objections to handing out birth control.
But in April, Illinois Governor Rod R Blogojevich filed a rule requiring Illinois pharmacies to dispense all such prescriptions immediately and without question.
‘Humiliated and traumatised’
“More and more pharmacists do not want to hand over the birth control package and feel that it is within their rights to lecture women about their morals,” said Judy Waxman of the National Women’s Law Centre in Washington DC.
There are many incidences of pharmacists not giving back the prescription so that the women can fill it somewhere else.”
At a Brooks pharmacy in Laconia, New Hampshire, Suzanne Richards, a 21-year-old single mother with a 3-year-old son, was denied the morning after pill because of the pharmacist’s religious convictions.
He told Richards he would not fill her prescription because “it would end the fertilisation process of the egg in the embryo” and, based upon his religious beliefs, it was wrong.
It was Saturday night in this rural town – all other pharmacies were closed, leaving Richards without an option.
Richards says she felt “humiliated and traumatised”, and was too frightened to approach another pharmacist the next day, allowing the 72-hour limit for taking the pill to pass.
‘A chemical abortion’
While it turns out that Richards was not pregnant, Waxman considers this a breach of professional responsibility.
“The sad thing is that a very small and very loud minority is trying to thwart women from getting their basic health care needs,” she said.
Pharmacist Pitt Philips from North Carolina defends the decision of pharmacists to refuse to dispense the morning-after pill.
“While they have the right to obtain the prescription, as an individual I always have my own rights not to fill it.”
Supporters of pharmacists’ rights, like Steven Aden of the Christian Legal Centre for Law and Religious freedom, believe that “in no case should a health care worker do something that violates their conscience”.
Phillips said: “In essence, I would be causing a chemical abortion, and as a Christian, I am impelled not to do anything that destroys life.”
The debate, between the women’s right to birth control and the pharmacist’s right to choose which prescriptions to fill, will only intensify further if the Food and Drug Administration approves the sale of the morning-after pill without a prescription.
If this contentious decision is approved, it is likely to make pharmacists the primary dispenser, intensifying the dispute further.
i can’t help feeling that as a european living in a secular society, the stability of the world depends on the eradication of the idea that religion or religious beliefs have any place outside the individual mind
both east and west
I wouldn’t say “this has nothing to do with raving” – there will be at least one couple who indulge in unplanned sexual activity during/after a rave, and may be worried about needing emergency contraception.
The rule is the same in Great Britain as well – a young (female) Muslim pharmacist working at a branch of Boots in East London refused to sell the morning after pill to another young lady (the same age as her!) – although a pharmacist in Britain is also not expected to go against their religious beliefs, they must give the customer the address of another pharmacy which would serve them and she did not do so.
I am also aware of white pharmacists (usually elderly females) refusing to sell contraceptive products to young people whom they consider to be underage.
What is more shocking is that religious dogma overrode any form of solidarity amongst sisters 🙁 – even the Muslim scholars said this was wrong, it would be even more haraam (harmful) to deny the distressed young lady urgent medical treament (even from a different source) and to perhaps force her to seek a termination at a later date…
yep, allowing organised religion to affect other people is for utter wankers. why do these religious nuts want to spread their mind disiese to all of supposedly gods creation? is it because theyve made themselves mentally ill and cant see past it? i think so.
im not saying all christians and muslims are scum. its the ones who will destroy or take other peoples freedom, while bitching and moaning about the preservation of their right to wake everyone up on sunday with shit bell ringing. they should all be force fed acid and locked in the same room. quick yet messy, and if you televised it it would not only be the best thing religion has done for humanity but prolly the best tv show ever as well.
pay no attention. i’m hung over :good_evil :you_crazy
the saddest thing is that many religious people take on these careers (in the medical profession) because they want to care for people and heal them (both Jesus and Mohammed were supposed to be healers).
Many people in the NHS and similar organisations have strong religious or spiritual beliefs, but are prepared to overrule dogma when the priority is on healing the patient, either by carrying out the controversial treatment anyway, or referring the patient to another colleague.
In many cases the very prophets/angels/gods they worship carried out acts of healing that were controversial and not accepted by the society at the time.
I was brought up as a Catholic and am personally uncomfortable with the concept of abortion – it is essentially terminating a life and should be discouraged as possible a last resort – but it is far worse to bring a child into this world which will live in poverty, misery or not be loved (which happens far too often even in the rich world)
however in these cases “religion” is clearly being used as a smokescreen to enforce class, gender, racial divisions and political conservatism.
I do not think for one moment the young pharmacist in East London was thinking of the teachings of Mohammed which in many cases encourage compassion and peaceful living (another devout Muslim I know refused to kill a mouse that had entered his family home, as it was also one of God’s creatures feeding its own family)
More likely her real thoughts were..
“I studied hard to get my degree and and am working hard in this pharmacy on a weekend, whilst you are nothing but a little slag who has been binge drinking and screwing around. OTOH I secretly envy your freedom – but because of my academic qualifications and position I have power over you in society, and I am now going to make you suffer for your lifestyle choice”.
Conservatism goes hand in hand with organised religion – it may not get up to anything naughty until after marriage 😀 – but when they do form a strong bond this happy couple brings misery to the world.
BTW USE if you gave the religious nuts LSD, they would probably between them decide to cleanse the world by detonating the atomic bomb.
not if you locked em all in the same room, they would sort themselves out, either buck up their ideas or massacre one another. either way, problem solved. remember tony blair would be in the room, as would bush!
I guess you haven’t heard about Charles Manson then… (its before my time though as well!)
its an unfortunate misconception (but understandable from those who have had predominantly good experiences with psychedelics) that taking them turns everyone into a good person. They can bring out the darkside in people, and if you have charismatic leaders amongst them the worst can happen. The use of LSD (and religion for that matter!) can also re-inforce existing views and prejudices, or justify an otherwise sociopathic or perverse action…..
There’s a big crossover between religion and psychedelia although the god squad don’t like to admit it (why do you think the Catholic priests dress up in all those funny robes?). There’s also an conservative consensus amongst the extreme religious types – Christians and Muslims have a lot of common ground when it comes to social and moral control. Giving this lot LSD would be positively dangerous!
Exactly, it is even possible to trace many religions back to the drugs that started them. I kinda like that because it asks some pretty awkward questions for both sides (religious/drug-user) sides of the debate.
For instance, many people think that religion is a misconception caused by the hallucinogenic qualities of various drugs. However, how do you know that these things you are seeing are totally the production of your own mind? They could be heightening your perception to allow you to see that which you are usually blind to.
But at the same time most religions are so fixed and nobody is prepared to admit that most of what they believe are the observations of people under the influence of these hallucinogenic drugs? Why do their beliefs have to be fixed and not interpretations of what we see around us, including in “higher” states of conciousness?
Myself I don’t know and don’t see how I can ever know for sure, but I kinda like that. We don’t need all the answers, and in fact in this case I think that we make better decisions without the “answers” both sides put forward. Religion may be the world’s biggest problem, but hatred of religion is just another problem, not a solution.
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Forums › Rave › Clubbing & Raving › this has nothing to do with raving
