Prescription for Sin
I was reading an article in the Arizona Daily Star about a sexual assault victim’s difficulty obtaining emergency contraception (aka “Plan B” or the “morning after pill”) after her attack. (link) According to the article, a victim of sexual assault called pharmacies all over Tucson trying to find one that stocked the drug, and when she finally located one (after many attempts), was met with a pharmacist who refused to fill the prescription on moral grounds.
I have some mixed feelings about this.
On one hand, I want to support people’s moral and spiritual convictions in their daily lives. I believe that one’s job is not as important as one’s beliefs, and that people need to act in such a way that lets them feel like a whole person, job be damned. I think about times when I put my job on the line to stand up for what I believe in and for those memories alone, I have a tough time placing blame on a pharmacist who acts on his/her convictions and holds them above his/her career. However, my heart goes out to this victim, who wants nothing more than to ensure that one bad night doesn’t turn into a lifetime of unwanted parenthood.
I think that if every pharmacy was required to stock all drugs, there would be less of an issue because there would be more pharmacists able to dispense what was necessary even if some refused. But that’s not really the way things work; it’s really up to the individual pharmacies (or corporate offices in the case of chains) to decide what they stock and what they don’t, whether they base it on demand or on personal philosophy.
I also wonder how far this can go. Tom Cruise, a proud Scientologist, has used the media to state his disdain for psychopharmacology and the use of medication for mental illness. Could a pharmacist who is a Scientologist refuse to fill all prescriptions for psychotropics based on religion? Could a Roman Catholic pharmacist refuse to fill all prescriptions for hormonal birth control based on religion? Does this only refer to emergency contraception?
I can understand wanting to avoid emergency contraception in your own life if you have moral or spiritual beliefs against such things. But don’t prescription recipients have the right to have their own beliefs or to take moral matters into their own hands? When is it appropriate or acceptible for one person to impose his/her morality on another? Just trying to start a little friendly discussion here, not on abortion but on the bigger picture.