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.

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.

I am under the impression that oral contraceptives are nonprescription in some European countries.

Is that accurate? Maybe I’m mistaken.

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.

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.

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?

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.