The "pro-life" pharmacy

The start of a very slippery slope: “When DMC Pharmacy opens this summer on Route 50 in Chantilly, the shelves will be stocked with allergy remedies, pain relievers, antiseptic ointments and almost everything else sold in any drugstore. But anyone who wants condoms, birth control pills or the Plan B emergency contraceptive will be turned away.

That’s because the drugstore . . . will be a ‘pro-life pharmacy’ — meaning, among other things, that it will eschew all contraceptives.”

The WSJ Health Blog has more coverage.

(via Integrative Psychiatry)

Comments

Anonymous
I don’t know what to make of that. At least be VERY upfront about it, so people can shop accordingly.
Should we force halal and kosher markets to sell pork?
Anonymous
I think the WSJ has a point about geographic limitations. In Suburban Virginia you wouldn’t have to travel far to find a drug store that stocked birth control, but it’s not hard to imagine other areas where it would be limiting to not have such items available.
The merchants should be upfront about not carrying birth control, because I personally find it closed-minded, and would probably not want to shop for anything there.
Anonymous
you bets its a slippery slope. and its absolutely ridiculous.
anyone can form their own religion.
my custom religion requires me to add ‘ali’ for all the obese customers that visit my pharmacy….take that now.
Anonymous
To force a pharmacist to carry what he does not want to carry would be a tyranny on the order of forcing physicians to expand their scope of practice where they do not want to.
Freedom is still worth dying for, killing for, and suffering inconvenience for. The pharmacist is not my or your slave to order about without consideration for their liberty. If you are not willing to sacrifice your convenience for his liberty, then you should go to a country that was not established by the sacrifice of blood for liberty.
I don’t care if all he carries is aspirin and horse liniment, it is no ones right to force him to sell anything.
Anonymous
I’m inclined to leave them alone. The alternative is to legislate morality, and I don’t want my morality dictated by the voice of majority opinion. It is so easy to say what others should do, but let some-one tell us what we morality we HAVE to practice, and they have made an implacable enemy. They have a right to practice their morality, as do I. They only hurt themselves by limiting their customer base.
Anonymous
I needed a medication which several pharmacies were unable to provide and did not offer to make a referral or order it for me.
But it wasn’t a controversial medication and there was never any reason to think that they didn’t stock it for the simple reason that they didn’t think it worth stocking it for low demand.
But why does the reason matter? The result was the same. They didn’t provide what I expected. Did I boo-hoo or complain? Should I go into a narcissistic rage? Of course not. I just persisted until I, with some inconvenience, got what I wanted.
The article reports: “If you are a health-care professional, you are bound by professional obligations,” said Nancy Berlinger, deputy director of the Hastings Center, a bioethics think tank in Garrison, N.Y. “You can’t say you won’t do part of that profession.”
This is complete and total BS and the sort of thing why I never give “bioethicists” the time of day. They are just nosey busy-body trying to tell real health care professionals what to do. Modern medical Beadles.
There are a hell of a lot of things that I as a physician don’t and won’t do that are part of medical practice–same for the rest of you. Of course most of that is in fealty to the obligation to not do what I don’t know enough to do well–to stick to my specialty.
But as a psychiatrist, there is also a hell of a lot that is part of what I am trained to do and can do reasonably well that I exclude from my practice. I bet that is true for a lot of other docs in other fields. I don’t treat substance abuse, I don’t do disability evaluations, I don’t do forensic evaluations, I don’t treat wife-beaters or child abusers. Despite that busy bodies arrogant proclamation, I feel absolutely no guilt about it, and I don’t do those things for no better reason than that I DON”T WANT TO–and no better reason is required and no one is entitled to any explanation.
I do however owe those pharmacist the same freedom that I have. We are both free citizens, not public utilities.
Anonymous
Sorry to all the totalitarians, but there should still be a place in medicine for those people whose lives are governed by ethics and religious principles.
Jeff
It’s a business catering to a specific demographic. It’s totally legal, and the owner has the option to stock what he wants. To dictate what he SHOULD stock in his pharmacy is anti-liberty. People will vote with their pocketbooks; if there is a market for such a pharmacy, it will thrive.
Anonymous
There are a number of uses of BCP that has nothing to do with birth control.
If the pharmacy is in town with zillion other pharmacies, it is one thing. But if the pharmacy is the only pharmacy in town with no other pharmacies for miles and miles, this is indeed a start of slippery slope.
A Christian Science pharmacy may want to only stock prayer books. If there are no pharmacies around, do people have to travel for miles to get medication?
ERP
Although this is legal and probably protected somehow in our constitution, it makes me want to vomit.
Anonymous
“If there are no pharmacies around, do people have to travel for miles to get medication?”
Good grief, there are ways to have your prescriptions mailed to you. Sorry, I just don’t think this is that big of a deal. Let them run their business as they wish, or watch them close it. Enough with trying to legislate everything.
Anonymous
Kind of like the Muslim cabdrivers who want to keep liquor, dogs, gays, etc., out of their cabs.
Fine. But put up a big sign that says “Muslim cab” on your rig, and let me pick my own cab out of the airport line.
Same with the “pro-life” pharmacy. Make sure it’s upfront and I’ll shop accordingly.
And lift ALL restrictions on physician dispensing, in the states that have such restrictions.
Anonymous
Can someone set me straight on this?
I am under the impression that oral contraceptives are nonprescription in some European countries.
Is that accurate? Maybe I’m mistaken.
Anonymous
Good grief, there are ways to have your prescriptions mailed to you.
I use mail order pharmacy for long-term prescription. The turn around time for new prescription is around 10 days. A week if you choose quicker delivery option.
Sometimes you need your medications sooner.
If pharmacists have a right to second guess the doctor, then you may end up with the situation in which each pharmacy doesn’t carry something or other.
Oh and there were some cases around when not only pharmaciests refused to fill up BCP prescription, they also refused to give prescription back. So the women had to go back to doctors to get new prescriptions.
They should at the very least put a huge sign in bold letters “we don’t dispense” with the list of drugs. This way at least people can plan accordingly.
Oh, and sometimes BCP is prescribed for non-contraception needs. I was prescribed BCP in place of hormone replacement when I was first diagnosed with POF – get it anti-contraception croud? POF i.e. ovaries don’t work, can’t have babies. I surely wouldn’t have enjoyed talk about how they don’t want me to prevent pregnancy at the time I was still trying to come to grips with my infertility.
Anonymous
Thanks for pointing out that BCPs have uses beyond birth control. Most of the readers here are aware of that.
The points made in the comments, in general, support the right of a business to maintain its inventory as it sees fit. It is not exactly an anti-contraceptive crowd. The point is that it is not that hard to find a CVS Kmart, Costco, Walmart, or Sams that will fill the prescription without question.
The pharmacist should have the right to choose what s/he stocks, and what s/he dispenses, for whatever grounds s/he pleases, be they moral or economic. I do think that having a pharmacist keep a prescription after refusing to fill it is excessive.

The "pro-life" pharmacy

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