You're Fired!

Recently a group calling themselves Pharmacists for Life have been in the news. These people reserve the "right" to refuse filling prescriptions if the situation conflicts with their moral or religious principles. Two examples were reported on in November, 2004 by USA Today. One incident involved a Wisconsin pharmacist's refusal to refill a prescription for birth-control pills. The other took the form of a Texas pharmacist refusing to give a woman, described to be a rape victim, contraceptives.

Here is another anecdote involving the president of Pharmacists for Life, as described by her on Bill O'Reilly's show:


O'REILLY: I got you. Now, when the customer complained, what happened there? Did you refer that customer to somewhere else?

BRAUER: I asked -- I -- she did not complain to me. OK? What happened is, she came in for a refill. I informed her that we did not carry the drug at the time. And I offered to call a copy of her prescription to the pharmacy of her choice.

O'REILLY: And then she complained. But did you -- how -- why would she complain about that, if you didn't have the drug on hand?

BRAUER: Somehow she found out that this pharmacy actually did have the drug at the time.

O'REILLY: So you lied to her.

BRAUER: Yes, I did.

O'REILLY: Ohh. Well, that wasn't good.

BRAUER: The situation concerning her privacy and concerning the people present did not really -- it was not really amenable to giving her information about her drug.


If a doctor has issued a prescription to a person, doesn't a pharmacist have an obligation to fill it? Any pharmacist acting in a manner as described in the examples above is unprofessional, and ought not to have entered the profession in the first place. Can you imagine a college professor assigning the reading of a particular book, but a librarian refusing to issue the book to a student because that book conflicts with the librarian's views?

These people can form their group and cluck to one another about how odious this or that aspect of their jobs may be, but the first time any of them refuse to fill a prescription, they ought be shown the Ronald Reagan air traffic controller treatment! In Brauer's case, she was fired! The Wisconsin pharmacist faces "possible disciplinary action, and no word as to the fate of the one in Texas. Can you just see the religious right ready to mount a defense of these people? Unfortunately, some states already have a defense in place, as reported by Associated Press:

Last year, Mississippi lawmakers passed a bill that allows all types of health care workers and facilities to refuse performing virtually any service they object to on moral or religious grounds. Anti-abortion organizations and a group called Pharmacists for Life are urging pharmacists to refuse to distribute emergency contraceptives.