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| No | 41% | 408 votes | Total: 988 votes | |
| Yes | 59% | 580 votes |
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Add to FavoritesI live in the United States of America. I live in a nation which claims that I have the right to be a Christian. I live in a country where our most fundamental rights declare that I can practice my religion as long as I respect others and their faith. I live in a country where I am not legally punished because of my religious views.
Or at least, that is what I thought. It seems that some in our society would like to undermine our individual rights and freedoms. This is not an issue of whether or not a woman can get the morning after pill. A woman who is refused the morning after pill can walk out of Walmart and drive 2 blocks to Walgreens, or 2 more blocks further and go to Target, or across the street to the pharmacy at Kmart. Every city and town has several pharmacies to choose from so this is not an issue of denying a woman's right to the morning after pill, or to have an abortion or her right to birth control in general. This is about society wanting to bully the religious right into submission.
Where is the toleration that is so often spoken of by the liberals in our society for the conservative pharmacist? The pharmacist isn't saying that the woman getting the morning after pill is evil. He's not saying that she is wicked and is going to burn in eternal Hell. He's not even saying that she's not a nice person. All he is saying is that his relationship with his God is too important to compromise his beliefs on. It's not about her at all.
So why if we say we are a tolerant society which allows a diversity of philosophies and religions to abound and where there are dozens of places where that woman who wants to take the morning after pill can go, why do we insist on stepping on the rights of that pharmacist who conscientiously refuses to sell the pill.
I don't remember any liberals complaining over all the Vietnam vets who for conscience' sake refused to fight in Vietnam? But I guess that is different.... somehow.
Learn more about this author, Jason Austin.
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Yes
Should pharmacists be forced to violate religious beliefs by selling the morning after pill?
Just like a doctor or a nurse or any other medical professional, a pharmacist does not have the right to refuse services because of their own personal belief. If we allowed that type of behavior to infect our medical system, a system that has other more concerning issues to contend with already, we would be setting up a scenario that would open the flood gates for medical professionals to refuse all sorts of care and services based on their personal judgmental biases.
But, you see there is an even bigger and scarier picture that goes along with this debate. The same pharmacists are also infusing their religious beliefs and refusing to dispense birth control as well. Those that support the idea of allowing a pharmacist to refuse a woman the right to obtain the morning after pill are also more likely to support and defend a pharmacist's right to refuse to dispense birth control in general. They also land on the side of wanting to deny a woman the right to a safe and legal abortion, if so chosen. In other words, this is a true attempt at chipping away women's reproductive choices and rights, solely based on religious view and belief.
If this is allowed to occur, what will be next? Will doctors and nurses be allowed to deny care to patients on the grounds of their religious views? Will pharmacists then fight for the right to deny AIDS/HIV patients their medication, or someone who needs medication to treat an STD?
When you go into a medical related field that puts you in the position to care and dispense services to patients, you take a bit of an oath to not be judgmental and not be bias in whom and what you are willing to treat. The health and welfare of that patient is put before your personal views, especially ones that stem from your own personal religion. If your religion was going to interfere with your ability to be non-judgmental and bias, then you should have chosen a different profession. A pharmacist does not have the right to make a personal life choice for another person, and even more so, they do not have the right to impose and dispense their religious views on anyone but themselves.
Learn more about this author, Jan Castagnaro.
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