Borrowed from rockahulababy

[desertvixen]

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--emergencycontrace0815aug15,0,183003.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

NYCLU files complaints against pharmacists
August 15, 2006, 5:50 PM EDT
BY JESSICA PASKO Associated Press Writer

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ The New York Civil Liberties Union filed complaints Tuesday against three upstate pharmacists, saying they refused to fill prescriptions for refill doses of emergency contraception.

The NYCLU filed the complaints on behalf of Claudina Ashelman-Owen, Colleen Shaw and Dr. Marc Heller, health care providers from Planned Parenthood Mohawk-Hudson who had prescribed the morning-after pill to women who were their patients.

What makes this case different from many other similar cases in the U.S. is the pharmacists weren't objecting to filling the initial prescription, just the refill, said Elisabeth Benjamin, Director of the NYCLU's Reproductive Rights Project.

In most similar cases, pharmacists wouldn't fill the prescriptions at all based on religious and moral grounds, Benjamin said. "But these refusals seem to just be based solely on moralistic assumptions of women's sexuality."

NYCLU officials asked the state Department of Education's Office of Professions to discipline pharmacists Matt Weaver, Andrea Barcomb, and Lisa McGuiness for their failure to fill the emergency contraception prescriptions.

Calls to the Office of Professions were not immediately returned Tuesday.

According to the complaints, in November 2005 Weaver said he would fill a patient's initial emergency contraceptive prescription at a CVS pharmacy in Saratoga Springs, but wouldn't provide the refills. Weaver then altered the valid prescription so that it listed no refills, according to the complaint.

Ashelman-Owen spoke to Weaver's supervisor, Barcomb, who allegedly said that in her opinion, women who needed emergency contraception were "irresponsible" and obtaining the drug should be inconvenient for women and their doctors. According to the organization's filings, Barcomb allegedly defended Weaver's right to refuse to fill the prescription because he felt that refills were "a bad idea."

Mike DeAngelis, a spokesman for CVS, said that the company hasn't received a copy of the complaint and could not comment specifically on the allegations. He added that the company has a policy to fill all legally prescribed medications, including emergency contraception, in a timely manner.

"To decline to a customer to fill emergency contraception would be against our policy," DeAngelis said. "If a pharmacist has a religious conviction that would prevent them from filling (emergency contraception) they have to make a request for that consideration before they are in a position to fill it."

According to the NYCLU's filing, because women often need emergency contraception on evenings and weekends when most doctors' offices and clinics are closed, many providers give women advance prescriptions so they'll be able to take the drug as soon as possible. Emergency contraception uses a high dose of hormones which prevent the ovaries from releasing an egg, prevent an egg from being fertilized by sperm or prevent a fertilized egg from attaching itself to the wall of the uterus. To be most effective, the pill should be taken within 72 hours of having unprotected sex.

In February 2006, McGuiness, pharmacy manager at a Rite Aid store in Gloversville, allegedly questioned a patient's prescription because it listed refills, which she disagreed with, saying emergency contraception shouldn't be "treated as birth control."

McGuiness, Weaver and Barcomb could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Jody Cook, spokeswoman for the Rite Aid Corporation, based in Camp Hill, Pa., said that Rite Aid's official policy on filling prescriptions mandates that all reasonable steps must be taken to make sure customers are not inconvenienced.

"If a pharmacist is unable to fill a prescription because of a strictly held religious or moral conviction," that pharmacist is required to make sure the customer's needs are taken care of by another pharmacist or pharmacy, said Cook.

The complaints will now go to the State Pharmacy Board for review, as well as the Office of Professions. Benjamin said the pharmacies could be fined for their actions. The organization is also asking the pharmacy board to revise its guidelines regarding the right to refuse to fill a prescription based on religious or moral objection.

A state Pharmacy Board spokesman said that officials were at a state meeting Tuesday and were unavailable for comment.

"These refusals seem to just be based solely on moralistic assumptions of women's sexuality," said Benjamin.

A religious objection might be acceptable, but the pharmacist must have some sort of other arrangement if they aren't willing to fill a prescription," said Benjamin. "They need to have some option so a patient isn't abandoned in their time of need."

This just blew me away:
Ashelman-Owen spoke to Weaver's supervisor, Barcomb, who allegedly said that in her opinion, women who needed emergency contraception were "irresponsible" and obtaining the drug should be inconvenient for women and their doctors. According to the organization's filings, Barcomb allegedly defended Weaver's right to refuse to fill the prescription because he felt that refills were "a bad idea."

Am I the only one who remembers reading that bit about letting those who have not sinned throw the first stone?

It's NOT your decision whether or not women are being "irresponsible". It's not your decision to make things as inconvenient as possible to punish the women for enjoying their sexuality.

DV

Comments

[atomicsappertom.livejournal.com]

All rationalizations aside about doctors not being able to write prescriptions on weekends (which seems to be the doctor's problem, not the pharmacists), the notion of refills and multiple doses of an emergency contraceptive does seem a bit odd.

That being said, it's not a pharmacists place, IMHO, to alter a doctor's prescription. If the prescription is not correct, such as an inappropriate (or lethal) dosage and the pharmacist catches the MD's mistake, that's one thing and I presume there's a mechanism for dealing with that. Altering a doctor's prescription sounds like fraud to me and deserves jail time.

Declining to provide a service for which one is licensed might be defensible, but the employer would be equally justified in firing his/her ass.

[rockahulababy.livejournal.com]

It explains why some women have a stock of emergency contraception (or at least multiple refills). EC is best taken within 72 hours of the unprotected sex (either unprotected or by failure of contraception). It would be far more convenient for the woman to have a prescription than have to wait to go the doctor's or Planned Parenthood when neither may not be available (for whatever reason) to them.