This one is going to be really tough for me, because there is an Albertson’s grocery store and pharmacy right across the street from my apartment. And Albertson’s was founded and is still headquartered in my hometown of Boise, Idaho. And I’ve been going to Albertson’s almost all my life, in fact one such Albertson’s was Albertson’s #1, Joe’s first store at 17th & State in Boise.
But now I must call on all my readers to BOYCOTT ALBERTSON’S, or at the very least, write them a nasty letter.
Albertson’s Corporate HQ
Lawrence R. Johnston – Chairman, President, and CEO
250 E. Parkcenter Blvd.
Boise, ID 83726
Phone: 208-395-6200
Fax: 208-395-6349
Why, you ask? Read on…
Albertsons Agrees to Respect Pharmacists’ Right of Conscience
Albertsons Corporation agreed to accommodate its pharmacists’ right to refuse to fill prescriptions that violate their religious or moral beliefs.[Illinois Governor Rod] Blagojevich imposed an “emergency rule” stating that a pharmacist “must dispense . . . without delay” contraceptives, including so-called emergency contraceptives such as the “morning after” pill, despite the state’s right-of-conscience act.
Steven H. Aden, chief litigation counsel of CLS’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom, said the right of conscience is an important component of religious liberty. “Pharmacists should not be forced to fill prescriptions for the ‘morning after’ abortion pill,” he said, “if it violates their conscience.”
This is yet another attack by the American Taliban in the culture wars. The idea here is that a Born-Again™ Phamacist who might be opposed to abortion or birth control can decide on his own to not fulfill a perfectly legal prescription for a woman seeking those drugs.
I’ve written on this topic before. If prescribing medicine is going to be a violation of your conscience, find another career! You can be damn sure that if it was a radical lesbian feminist pharmacist was denying Viagra prescriptions “on conscience”, every one of the male members of Congress would be screaming about this.
Of course, the blogs are getting lots of comments about this, wondering “what’s next?” Vegan waitresses that won’t serve beef? Christian store clerks who won’t ring up condoms? Muslim bartenders that won’t serve alcohol? And so on… and the predictable responses from the wingnut crowd are “let the market decide” and “you can go to a different pharmacist” and “what about religious freedom”.
Poppycock. Balderdash. Bullshite.
What’s lost in all of this are a few simple points:
1) Not all birth control prescriptions are given to prevent pregnancy. Some are written to help a woman regulate her hormones, some for other valid medical reasons. My wife was prescribed (but decided not to take) birth control for this very reason; to regulate her weird hormones in order to help her get pregnant. Is she supposed to sit there and explain that to Mr. Christian Pharmacist — “No, really, I need it to get pregnant; I’m not trying to kill any unborn womb babies!”
2) But even the ones that are for birth control are LEGAL prescriptions representing a private medical decision between a woman and her doctor. We have the doctors who decide which drugs are appropriate and we have the pharmacists who carefully monitor and distribute the drug supply. We do this as a “check and balance”; we don’t want the doctor to have direct access to the stash he might abuse and we don’t want the pharmacist to be able to distribute or withhold drugs at will. The pharmacist is the pill delivery boy, not the arbiter of medical decisions.
3) There isn’t always another pharmacy to go to. This could present an undue burden on a woman trying to execute her doctor’s medical advice. Especially with regard to the “morning after” emergency contraception; if a rural woman has to spend a couple of days arranging transportation to the big city because her small-town small-minded pharmacist won’t give her what the doctor ordered, it may be too late.
4) Where does this “conscience” shit end? Does the pharmacist who thinks homosexuality is an “abomination” get to withhold AIDS retroviral medications? If she’s against sexual promiscuity, can she withhold penicillin to treat syphillis? If she’s against pre-marital sex, can she withhold condoms from unmarried couples and teenagers? If she’s a recovering addict, can she withhold the strongest narcotic pain relievers?
You don’t get to pick and choose which parts of a job you’re willing to do. If you take the job, you have to do the good with the bad. I’m a big fan of the open-source software movement, but I still have to work on and support Microsoft products. Even when Microsoft was renegging on their support of gay rights, something I was morally offended by, I still had to do my job, or I could have chosen to pick another career.
Fill the prescription, pill boy, and STFU.
