" Birth Control
-- NOW"
“For
a year, Julee Lacey stopped in a CVS pharmacy near her home in a Fort
Worth [Texas] suburb to get refills of her birth-control pills. Then
one day last March, the pharmacist refused to fill Lacey's prescription
because she did not believe in birth control. ‘I was shocked,’ says
Lacey, 33, who was not able to get her prescription until the next
day and missed taking one of her pills. ‘Their job is not to
regulate what people take or do. It's just to fill the prescription
that was ordered by my physician.’”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-11-08-druggists-pill_x.htm
The Pharmacists'
Refusal Clause
that CVS
Pharmacy adheres to allows pharmacists to refuse to fill certain prescriptions
because of their own
"moral objections" to
the medication.
Why Should YOU be Concerned by this?
[Excerpts
from Kourtney Stamps’ article: ‘Pharmacist Knows
Best? Women Beg to Differ’
http://www.now.org/issues/abortion/121704pharmacist.html
- The most targeted drug, Emergency Contraceptive
(EC), is a time-sensitive medication, which must be taken within 72 hours
of intercourse to most effectively prevent conception.
- A woman's likelihood of becoming pregnant increases the longer she waits
to take EC.
- Women who are refused the medication by one pharmacist may not have
the ability to obtain it from another pharmacy before time runs
out.
- Women who live in rural areas, especially, are at a disadvantage
since they may not have multiple pharmacies in their areas.
- Low income women, in particular, may not have transportation
or the additional time or money needed to track down a cooperative
pharmacy.
"These refusal clauses are another example
of ultra-conservatives trying to deny women control over their own
bodies. They can't have it
both ways. If they want abortion rates to decline, then they can't keep
opposing birth control and emergency contraception," said NOW
President Kim Gandy. "As for these so-called 'moral' pharmacists, I'd like
to know if any of them have objections to filling prescriptions for Viagra.
I suspect not."
Make your voice heard!
Every woman is entitled to guaranteed birth control dispensation!