A pharmacist at a Nampa, Idaho, Walgreens refused to dispense medication that stops uterine bleeding because she suspected the woman may have had an abortion. The pharmacist invoked the state’s new so-called conscience clause that allows pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for emergency contraceptives and abortifacient drugs, among other things, if they have a personal problem with it.
Last November, a woman took her prescription for Methergine, a drug that stops uterine bleeding regardless of cause, to Walgreens. The pharmacist, suspicious that the woman’s uncontrolled bleeding may have been the result of an abortion, called the nurse practitioner who wrote the prescription to inquire why the patient needed it. When the nurse refused to answer because to do so would violate the patient’s confidentiality, the pharmacist hung up on her and refused to fill the prescription.
Found by Cinàedh.
#40 If this women owned this Walgreens you’d be right.If she wants to pretend she’s participating in an abortion, she’s stretching a technicality past the breaking point and so are you.Freedom has nothing to do with it.
A suggestion for those who are upset by the pharmacist’s actions.
Stop patronizing WalGreens. Publicly and loudly let WalGreen’s management and customers know that you will not be spending money in their stores until they adopt a nationwide policy that insures their employees fill all legitimate prescriptions.
If enough people would do so, it would get their attention and force them to adopt such a policy. Pharmacists who do not wish to comply could then go find work at a business that is more compatible with their own philosophy. Maybe there’s even a business opportunity for Christian pharmacies here!
Far more effective than arguing with Bobbo all night.
Bobbo, did you figure out your puter problem? I hate it when parts work in one system but not another. Could you have a malware problem?
Several posters have said that this pharmacist should have been able to refuse this woman on the basis of her conscience, and the customer should have gone to another pharmacy. This might sound ok on the service, but what happens if the customer had gone to another pharmacy and faced the SAME problem – a pharmist who refused to place her RX because of a conscentious objection? In some parts of the country, I could easily see this happening, which would result in a complete denial of service to this customer.
This is the SAME reason we have laws against discrimination in employment and housing. If one landlord or employee won’t hire a black person or Jew or Muslim, that might not be a big problem. But when discrimination is widespread as it has been in the past, various groups found themselves unable to get decent housing or a job.
The “conscientious objection” of one is not a big problem. But when you multiply that by many, it becomes a serious infringement of civil rights.
This pharmacist should be fired and the chain sued.
Another helpful hint:
Don’t let the ambulance take you to a Catholic hospital if your illness is morally frowned upon.
I had a relative attempt suicide. I was shocked and you might be surprised at the lack of concern and even direct verbal abuse by supposed professionals at at least one Catholic hospital.
Excellent! Thread has taken a very cerebral turn. Good examples all.
You even saved yourself there Animby. No one can deny another their emotional history, as long as it is accepted as such. I have been thinking about my own emotional decision making process: why do “I” care? And I think my reason is the same as yours: I want to be effective, pragmatic, finally rational and I’d like to see my society act that way as well.
Homo sapiens: wise man.
Its a violation of your genome to present your emotions as a prescription for reality.
#42–Blind Stevie==thanks for your concern. I don’t want to hijack any thread with my personal concerns–but we all do have an interest in computers and that topic should always be relevant? I have deep/multiple virus protection and am used to defeating them and clearing them–had one a browser redirect that was harmless but I like keeping things tidy. As I was cleaning it up with “combofix” that advises newbies like me shouldn’t use it, I got a cascading series of frozen screens to bsod’s and finally the black screen all in about 6 hours. Its like having a child die! (ha, ha!). At first I thought it might be the dreaded “two issues at once” and maybe my power supply was going out in addition to some software corruption=MBR, registry, who knows? I finally got on track with one of the few helpful error messages: IRQ-Less-than-Equal which means a hardware problem. Replaced psu with an older less powerful one, removed all excess attachments, reset ram and video card==no joy.
So, on a different machine I am now going thru testing my ram but my “black box R&R” expertise gets stumped when I get inconsistent results. I’ve noticed that “sometimes” a computer has to reboot 2-3 times for things to get stable and that is hard to deal with when I’m also afraid that something in my main machine may actually damage the ram that’s put into it?
So–a little money into a machine that fits my needs, or $800 more for the joy of being on the leading edge again? I have the money, but my Scotch/Irish is against it. And even the 800 really should go towards my next big screen plasma.
I feel the tug of having a hyperthreading system. Sandy Beach is the “new” tech that Intel is now pursuing having given their 1166 platform only one year so I’d like to future proof as much as possible. Yes, I’d use and I-7 for the video encoding enhancement and the upgrade path would be going to more ram later with a hex core. Two core has been great but with hyperthreading the quad core acts as an 8-core. I don’t see me doing more than 8 things at a time when doing one thing, like responding to this blog, is hard enough?
But every good boy needs a stretch goal.
Well – la, di, da! After 3 days, and after downloading the rma form from GSkill==I’ve got all my old RAM running on a different motherboard.
So – what looked like a software problem, then a psu problem, then a ram problem was “actually” a motherboard that went bad in some way most likely regarding memory controller?
I better be careful though, this is how religions get started. Now to look at those big screen plasma’s! Grown up on standard broadcast, and usually only looking out the corner of my eye while doing something else, I’m even thinking of going with a 720p system==it will look great to me and save another 2-300 bucks.
Bobbo
Spend the money and get the new system. You will realize it’s the right thing to do the first time you boot it up.
Weren’t the sirens of Phadros also blind? Or was it the sailors needed to be blind (hooded) not to be turned to stone? Too many mixed/half remembered legends.
Yes, I’m being pulled towards the new system. I spend more time on the puter than anywhere else. That deserves a continuing investment.
Thanks. Maybe I’ll finally get a system that system restore will work on/or have an OS image that will actually restore the system? That would be nice. Tech just leaping forward and yet still no holodeck.
So the woman kills one living being, and wants help to make sure she doesn’t die for it, or is suffer some pain?
More cores good for some software, indifferent for others. Hyperthreading, not so much. Most folks running these processors in web and database servers turn HT off, as it degrades performance. Or that’s what a close friend who does database development tells me. You’d probably have little need for it on a personal desktop with four real cores anyway. If you’re compressing massive amounts of porn-er-I mean video, 7-Zip will use all four cores to good effect. Some video trancoding software will use all the cores you have too. MS Word, not so much.
Bobbo – do you really have time for a new hi def TV AND and new ‘puter?
My vote (as if I had one) is get the new system and forget TV. It will rot your brain faster than ECA’s capitaliZATION.
I had occasion to watch some documentaries on a friend’s 1080p system. Sure better than 3D! I’d skip the 720 and go straight to 1080.
Now, you have me in a quandary: Who were the Sirens of Phadros? Sadly, my copy of Bullfinch is in the States. The only sirens residing in my Greek memories were the singing temptresses of Odysseus and Jason. They lived on islands but not the Phadros. The turning to stone bit was the province of the gorgons. Gorgons and sirens were connected to the sea god Phorcys. Poop. I feel a bunch of googling coming on…
#49 NikeM – read a little more critically. The pharmacist BELIEVED she had had an abortion. We don’t know that. There are other uses for the drug.
Animby–your recollection of Greek Myths far exceeds mine. That memory thing is still working for you. RATS!!!! Everything I posted is wrong–ha, ha, other than the Sirens’ song of financial ruin on the rocks of high end tech. Those Greek Myths are however endlessly fascinating. I wonder at their complexity and have always wanted to take a class on how they arose. Individually, or is there 2-3 main works that created the general relationships?
I got that oceanic mystical feeling the early morning I hiked up to the top of Mount Olympus in Northern Greece–but I often get that feeling in areas of historical note.
Ooohhh–there’s a flip HD videocam==size of a cigarette package with 4 GB flash memory. $139. Whadda deal! Get away from me you filthy siren!
Hey==I’ll dump on Mikey too: what killer hasn’t been concerned for their own health?
Roberto – blame it on my misspent youth. Instead of taking a useful language, I studied Latin! Most of the Roman mythology (I’m sorry – religion) was based om the Greek myth… err, religion. I was fascinated by it. Should have become a preacher. Uh, mythologist. I have worn out several copies of Bullfinch’s book. I also have the advantage in this discussion of having recently (last week) read a retelling of The Odyssey entitled The Lost Books of the Odyssey. Not as good as Homer’s tome but much more readable.
Get that Flip (but not the Kodak clone). A friend and I each bought a camera at the same time. She got the Flip, I got a fancy dancy Sony at 3 times the price. I’ve been jealous ever since. (Mine was advertised as coming with 12 GB of memory. But, when I got the package home, it was three 4GB memory sticks! Somehow, I felt ripped off.)
Pardon the early termination there. Not sure what happened.
I wanted to add the Flip had pictures every bit as good as the Sony, was easier to use and faster to transfer images. The one way the Sony excelled (and Flip may have figured it by now) was to get still photos from the video. Oh, and the Sony has a 20X optical zoom. But, you ever tried using that long a focal length in a tiny handheld? Anything over 5X or 6X you need a tripod.
You climbed Mt Oly, huh? I’m jealous. Prior to moving into Kosovo, I was living in Macedonia. I did get into Greece several times but my one chance at Olympus was rained out. I can’t tell you how many times I heard a variation on “the gods are angry”. Still beautiful to look upon.
If you’re serious about studying the mythologies, you can do no better than to read Bullfinch’s even though the book was written in the 1850s. I just did a quick search and find it’s printed on line at http://sacred-texts.com/cla/bulf/ (This link is to volumes 1 & 2. Vol 3 was Arthurian legends and 4 was legends of Charlemagne.)
This is not the first time that an Idaho pharmacy has adopted a stupid policy. When the Morning After pill was finally approved, Idaho-based Albertson’s announced that its Pharmacists could refuse to fill those prescriptions as a matter of conscience. I don’t know if this policy is still in effect because I have not set foot in one of their stores since then.
Where were you people on the story here: http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2010/10/27/worldwide-shortage-of-lethal-injection-drug-huh/ ? A company stopped making lethal injection drugs over moral objections. However a pharmacist can’t not prescribe a drug over moral objections? Sounds a bit hypocritical to me.
Obviously the Methergine should not be covered under the moral objection clause because it doesn’t cause an abortion and is also used after regular child birth.
How far does this moral objection thing go? Would a Scientologist even have to fill any prescription since they don’t believe in drugs of any kind? I understand not prescribing the two existing abortion pills under moral objections, but anything else should be filled unless there is a dangerous drug interaction or something. Birth control pills are not abortion pills.
# 57 Benjamin said, “Birth control pills are not abortion pills.”
Actually, most oral contraceptives CAN be made to work as “morning after” pills. Up to several days after, for some. Since, a menstrual cycle is being forced to begin, and some zygotes may have implanted in the uterine wall, it sort of depends on your final definition of abortion.
But, let’s take your thoughts one step further – Should a pharmacist who is a strict Roman Catholic be allowed to refuse to dispense birth control?
And the Pope in his Prada shoes and Donna Karan dress has decided it’s okay to use a condom for protection against disease. On the other hand, don’t they teach that every fuck should be used for procreation? I see a schism approaching…
http://youtube.com/watch?v=U0kJHQpvgB8
Am I wrong but the way the article reads if she was taking this do to an abortion, which we don’t even know, the abortion would already have happened. In which case this isn’t a moral objection to stopping a course of action. It’s retribution against someone’s action already taken. This wasn’t going to stop any hypothetical abortion.
How does a person living in a state named I da ho get the gall?