In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

And By “Pro-Life” We Actually Mean, “Go Die Of An Infection You Slut”

Jill

Bad news out of my hometown today: Apparently pharmacists are extending their oh-so-moral “consciences” into the realm of basic disease prevention. That is, they won’t fill prescriptions for antibiotics if you’re a bad lady.

Cedar River Clinics, a women’s health and abortion provider with facilities in Renton, Tacoma, and Yakima, filed a complaint with the Washington State Department of Health this week alleging three instances where pharmacists raising moral objections refused to fill prescriptions for Cedar River clients. The complaint includes one incident at the Swedish Medical Center outpatient pharmacy in Seattle. According to the complaint, someone at the Swedish pharmacy said she was “morally unable” to fill a Cedar River patient’s prescription for abortion-related antibiotics.

Apparently pharmacists are refusing to fill any prescription coming out of Cedar River — not even for pre-natal vitamins. Because we love babies!

I can’t wait to see what violates the “consciences” of these pharmacists next. AIDS drugs for homos? That would be enabling them! Ritalin for little Billy? That’s just not right, his parents should have more control. Valtrex? Only whores get STDS! (And not, you know, about a quarter of the population). Anti-depressants? Well, I’m a scientologist, and if you had any personal strength you’d really be able to get through that without medication.

Complaining? Well, shut up and go elsewhere, because this is my conscience.

Please, someone, justify this. Go.

via Pandagon.

11 thoughts on And By “Pro-Life” We Actually Mean, “Go Die Of An Infection You Slut”

  2. That’s exactly what I was thinking. It’s like when I worked as a lifeguard in high school, and all of a sudden someone drowned and they expected me to give him CPR. I was like, you know what, I’m saving my first kiss for my wedding day, and this would really violate my conscience and my religious beliefs and, really, can’t he just go elsewhere?

  3. I’ve always said that EC is just the thin end of the wedge.

    I remember reading about a man who wrote a letter to (IIRC) the Salt Lake City Tribune because he’d been denied a prescription for Antabuse by a Mormon pharmacist who thought he shouldn’t be drinking (well, no shit, Sherlock, that’s what the Antabuse is for).

    It doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to see the same kind of religious accommodations and protections being granted pharmacists who want to deny EC and RU-486 and birth control to women being used to deny antipsychotics, anti-depressants, antibiotics, etc.

    After all, even medical professionals subscribe to magical thinking about the causes of mental illness, or PMS, or what have you. And given how many delusions take the form of demons talking to the mentally ill, it’s not hard to see why they just accept that.

  4. I suppose this is what some cons call being “anti-Christian”, but I really think if these pharmacists are unwilling to fill these prescriptions, they shouldn’t be in this line of work. From my layman’s perspective, these pharmacists are guilty of malpractice. Their “moral inability” (what a crock) could quite likely result in serious illness or death on the part of the patients denied prescriptions.

    I’m also sure it’s just a matter of time before one of the fundie rights groups (like Robertson’s American Center for Law and Justice) files a religious liberty lawsuit on behalf of one of these idiots. If that hasn’t happened already.

  5. Prenatal vitamins? The fuck? Those are over the counter last I checked. My doctor says they sell them alongside the Caltrate and Centrum at any store. Are they refusing to fill them because they are prescribed at an abortion-providing clinic, or do they want women to breed but not have healthy pregnancies? Geez louise.

    Sometimes I wonder if there are stories like this about Provera, that progesterone pill that helps bring back your period. Is it considered abortifacient because it’s a hormone? Shout if you hear any stories about that Jill, because it’s very commonly prescribed not only when women miss periods, but to delay them (My cousin did it for her wedding day).

  6. After all, even medical professionals subscribe to magical thinking about the causes of mental illness, or PMS, or what have you. And given how many delusions take the form of demons talking to the mentally ill, it’s not hard to see why they just accept that.

    Don’t get me started.

  7. Add buprenorphine and methadone to the list. So much for helping people become productive members of society …

  8. Remember, these people are trying to change the job description itself under the guise of “civil rights.” They do not see it as choosing not to do their jobs.

  9. I think George Carlin put it best: “If you’re prenatal, you’re fine; if you’re postnatal, you’re f***ed.”

    These types don’t want women to have the decision to terminate a pregnancy, but they don’t want their tax dollars to feed, clothe, or educate the resulting child. How people can so coldly overlook the poorest in our society and justify it as “morality” makes me absolutely sick.

  10. Hate to say it, but there’s no pharmicist’s credo that says they have to dispense all drugs, no matter what. They have professional “license,” as it were, to make an individual call pretty much whenever they want. They are full members of the western medical cabal that can and does tell you what you can do with your disease, condition, situation, etc. based on a specific knowledge base and set of beliefs. There’s a symbiosis between prescribing medical practicioners and pharmicists (MDs prescribe the wrong drug(s), amounts, combinations, etc. all the time – don’t have the stats right here, sorry – and it’s often up to people in pharmacies to sort it out). MDs could complain and put real weight toward stopping the practice of using one’s “moral code” to influence medical outcomes, but they won’t because it’s just oh, so cozy in that world. This whole issue shines the light (finally) on a culture/cabal that has far too much mis-handled power and far too little oversight outside its well-guarded (see, AMA) confines.

  11. Dan, they’re obligated under the terms of their state licenses to dispense prescriptions as written. Obviously, there are exceptions relating to patient safety and the substitution of generics, but it’s the state licensing boards that regulate the industry and what the pharmacists must do.

Comments are currently closed.