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Pharmacists, religious beliefs, and the raging debate over the morning after pill.

This is clearly an issue that has become quite controversial recently as some people have been shocked to encounter pharmacists who for 'religious' beliefs or 'personal' beliefs refuse to dispense such medication. I have even heard of a few that outright attack the customer for asking for the medication.

I think a lot of these pharmacists are exploiting a little known, but relevant law that exists to protect the pharmacist legally and the pharmacy as well. Working part time as a pharmacy technician I have on occasion worked with pharmacists who have refused to fill or sell certain prescriptions but most of these cases involve a clearly fake prescription for a controlled drug. Obviously in this case as one pharmacist put it to me, denying to fill a controlled prescription that may be fake or for whom may go to a drug addicted individual not only protects the pharmacist, staff, and doctor legally if something should go wrong but also protects a possible drug addict from themselves. Also the DEA expects pharmacists to be on the look out for fake prescriptions and to deny them. Some pharmacists tell the patients outright that it is fake, others destroy it, and most just tell them to go elsewhere.

Now that legal protection makes sense, but in the case of the morning after pill and also of birth control this legal protection is exploited by those refusing to sell these two medications. The pharmacist will argue that since legally they are able to refuse to dispense any drug or fill any medication based on valid reasons, that they can also do the same if filling the drug violates their own beliefs. Clearly denying someone else medication because you belief it is wrong to be using is not covered under this law and can even come back and hit the pharmacist with a denial of care situation.

So it is not 'forcing' a pharmacist to violate beliefs, it is teaching these individuals that when they step behind the counter they have a legal and job based responsibility to provide service and care to all of their customers regardless of how they may personally feel. A pharmacist like any professional in a job serving the public and society needs to accept that when working for a company for a salary, their beliefs do not come into play in the daily operations of that company. If a pharmacist feels their beliefs are being compromised they are more then welcome to claim a conflict of interest and find

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