Asshat Pharmacy Refuses to Sell Birth Control

MattShizzle
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Asshat Pharmacy Refuses to Sell Birth Control

CHANTILLY, Va. (AP) _ A new drug store at a Virginia strip mall is putting its faith in an unconventional business plan: No candy. No sodas. And no birth control.

Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy is among at least seven pharmacies across the nation that are refusing as a matter of faith to sell contraceptives of any kind, even if a person has a prescription. States across the country have been wrestling with the issue of pharmacists who refuse on religious grounds to dispense birth control or morning-after pills, and some have enacted laws requiring drug stores to fill the prescriptions.

In Virginia, though, pharmacists can turn away any prescription for any reason.

"I am grateful to be able to practice," pharmacy manager Robert Semler said, "where my conscience will never be violated and my faith does not have to be checked at the door each morning."

 

Semler ran a similar pharmacy before opening the new store, which is not far from Dulles International Airport. The store only sells items that are health-related, including vitamins, skin care products and over-the-counter medications.

On Tuesday, the pharmacy celebrated a blessing from Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde. While Divine Mercy Care is not affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, it is guided by church teachings on sexuality, which forbid any form of artificial contraception, including morning-after pills, condoms and birth control pills, a common prescription used by millions of women in the U.S.

"This pharmacy is a vibrant example of our Holy Father's charge to all of us to wear our faith in the public square," said Loverde, who sprinkled holy water on the shelves stocked with painkillers and acne treatments. "It will allow families to shop in an environment where their faith is not compromised."

The drug store is the seventh in the country to be certified as not prescribing birth control by Pharmacists for Life International. The anti-abortion group estimates that perhaps hundreds of other pharmacies have similar policies, though they have not been certified.

Earlier this year in Wisconsin, a state appeals court upheld sanctions against a pharmacist who refused to dispense birth control pills to a woman and wouldn't transfer her prescription elsewhere. Elsewhere, at least seven states require pharmacies or pharmacists to fill contraceptive prescriptions, according to the National Women's Law Center. Four states explicitly give pharmacists the right to turn away any prescriptions, the group said.

The Virginia store's policy has drawn scorn from some abortion rights groups, who have already called for a boycott and collected more than 1,000 signatures protesting the pharmacy.

"If this emboldens other pharmacies in other parts of the state, it could really affect low-income and rural women in terms of access," said Tarina Keene, executive director of the Virginia chapter of the National Abortion Rights Action League.

Robert Laird, executive director of Divine Mercy Care, believes many of the estimated 50,000 Catholics within a few miles of the store will support its mission and make up for the roughly 10 percent of business that contraceptives represent in a typical pharmacy.

Whether Catholics will be drawn to the pharmacy is uncertain. According to a Gallup poll published last year for an extensive study of U.S. Catholicism called American Catholics Today, 75 percent of U.S. Catholics said you can still be a good Catholic even if you don't obey church teachings on birth control.

Catherine Muskett said she plans to shop at the drug store even though she lives more than 20 miles away.

"Obviously it's good to support pro-life causes. Every little bit counts," said Muskett, one of about 75 people who crowded into the tiny shop for Tuesday's ceremony.

 

 

 

What the fuck? Hopefully there's nowhere where this is the only pharmacy for miles around. This definitely shouldn't be allowed - if someone has a problem with any sort of prescription, don't become a pharmacist. What's next, a Christian Science pharmacy that only sells the candy bars, mafazines and shit - NO medication? What about a Scientologist one that won't carry psych meds? There needs to be a federal law requiring any pharmacist or pharmacy to fill any valid prescription - refusal carries a large fine and automatic loss of licensure.

 

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Once again, theists fail to

Once again, theists fail to recognize the difference between freedom to practice their religion and freedom to impose it.  You have every right to believe that birth control is wrong, but if you're going to be a pharmacist, you have to provide birth control.  If it's not compatible with your religion, you have the freedom to choose -- your religion, or being a pharmacist.

 

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I wonder if it will last.

I wonder if it will last. There's a reason pharmacies sell lots of things not health related - because they're very profitable. If there's a WalMart, CVS or any such place around unless he is in an extreme fundie area, the religious nuts that will come there purposely won't make up for not only those that refuse but those that would rather pay cheaper prices and maybe pick up sodas and such when they get their medication.

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I'm of two minds on this. 

I'm of two minds on this.  I feel a business owner has every right to stock and refuse to stock what ever they choose and the only person they need to answer to is themselves no matter how irrational the reasoning.  On the other hand, many of the pharmacies doing this are in rural towns where there's hundreds if not thousands of people who have no choice but to go to that particular pharmacy.  In cases like that I feel the pharmacy is providing a necessary service to the community and therefore has an obligation to the community.

When it comes to hospitals and doctors, they are providing a necessary service to the community too and the people who go to hospitals often have no choice in which one.  Again that's a scenario where the business has a duty of care and it annoys me when they fail to deliver for irrational reasons.

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The thing is, thingy, that

The thing is, thingy, that this is not Sarah Palin bobblehead dolls we're talking about.  It's healthcare.

I'm of the opinion that healthcare is not something that can be subjected to religious beliefs if it is to be effective.  Once you give people in healthcare an option to refuse a service, you open the door to vigilante overturning of laws.

 

 

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Hambydammit wrote:Once

Hambydammit wrote:

Once again, theists fail to recognize the difference between freedom to practice their religion and freedom to impose it.  You have every right to believe that birth control is wrong, but if you're going to be a pharmacist, you have to provide birth control.  If it's not compatible with your religion, you have the freedom to choose -- your religion, or being a pharmacist.

 

Hambi, this is where I dissagree.

While I agree that the "oath" that they take makes them hypocrites, a private business CAN sell or not sell what it wants. If you owned an atheist bookstore and didn't want to sell religious material(not that you wouldnt) should the government force you to? That would be like the government forcing Catholic Churches to hire Muslim Clerics to lead the church.

I am NOT saying this pharmicist is right. But since it is a private business, I have a hard time telling them to sell something, even if I think they should, because I DON'T OWN IT!

It makes them look like hypocrites, no doubt. Because doctors, policemen, firefighters, and pharmicists should be at a point where helping is more important than personal ideology. Where it becomes illegal, is when they are on government payroll. Private business is completely different.

BUT, that doesn't take away, nor should it, our rights in a free market economy to do stupid things.

I smoke and at the same time preach to youngters that they shouldn't start. I am a hypocrite as well.

Don't confuse "what someone should do" with their private business ownership rights.

It sucks that this guy is a moron, but since I don't own that particular pharmacy, all I can do is call him a hypocrite.

"Doctors, pharmicists, policemen or firemen" are supposed to be a lot like reffs in sports, neither for or against. This pharmacist is bias, but that is not illegal when it comes to a private business. Otherwise strip joints would be forced to hire 500lb women. AND I CAN TELL YOU, if they did, there is no way I would frequent one.

I get it, you dont like it, I don't either. But that does not make what they are doing illegal.

 

 

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I happen to be against

I happen to be against non-regulation of business but when it comes to something necessary like health care, it's not like something like a strip club or bookstore. This of course is a good reason to get rid of a free market economy but if we won't go that far we need to at least prevent them from being able to do shit like this.

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MattShizzle wrote:I happen

MattShizzle wrote:

I happen to be against non-regulation of business but when it comes to something necessary like health care, it's not like something like a strip club or bookstore. This of course is a good reason to get rid of a free market economy but if we won't go that far we need to at least prevent them from being able to do shit like this.

I am not sure what you are saying?

I agree that no regulation is absurd, but absolute government control over all aspects off our lives is absurd. So please clarify.

I dissagree in this case, simply because there are pleanty of privately owned pharmacies that DO sell that. If we were talking about government  outlawing the sale of such item, then you would have a case.

To me, this is one idiot. We have 300,000,000 people in America and tons of diverse business to counter crap like that. When contreception becomes  constitutional amendment bann, then I will pick up my riffle. But all we see right now is one idiot thinking of his own pet whims. If there were no stores doing the oposite because government banned that on that moron's behalf, then you would have a case.

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If we have a full public

If we have a full public health care system so that everybody can get whatever they need, I'm ok with private clinics that refuse certain services.  But the thing is, we don't.

The bottom line is I don't believe healthcare is something that we can afford to allow this kind of individual discretion on.  Then again, remember I am in favor of socialized medicine, so there you go.

 

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Also don't forget in some

Also don't forget in some rural areas there may be one pharmacy in a 50 mile area, and people who don't have the means of travelling further.

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Hambydammit wrote:If we have

Hambydammit wrote:

If we have a full public health care system so that everybody can get whatever they need, I'm ok with private clinics that refuse certain services.  But the thing is, we don't.

The bottom line is I don't believe healthcare is something that we can afford to allow this kind of individual discretion on.  Then again, remember I am in favor of socialized medicine, so there you go.

 

I don't know if I would want to have a heart operation in Cuba, but certainly I don't think that it should cost 1 billion dollars to fix my ticker just because our private health industry has greedy lawyers, insurance companies and pharmicuticals who pad their profit margins. So where is the balance?

You don't want to have a one size fits all, but you also don't want every man for themselves.

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Just to clarify...

FYI - Chantilly, VA is *far* from rural... I don't know where this specific pharmacy is located but I'd find it hard to imagine another pharmacy is not within walking distance.  One is certainly within biking distance.

Also, from my understanding this store is not selling any contraceptives... including OTC items.


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shelleymtjoy wrote:FYI -

shelleymtjoy wrote:

FYI - Chantilly, VA is *far* from rural... I don't know where this specific pharmacy is located but I'd find it hard to imagine another pharmacy is not within walking distance.  One is certainly within biking distance.

Also, from my understanding this store is not selling any contraceptives... including OTC items.

I used to live in No Va and when I was a kid Chantilly was considered "way out there boon dock, cow farm land". Chantilly now is a suburb.

I also know that having commutted from No Va to the college I went to in Southern Va, I had to make pit stops at roadside grease pits where the bathrooms had condom despensers, AND THESE counties were not exactly the bastion of liberalism.

I think in the end it isn't left vs right, but what the owner thinks they can sell the most of. Occasionally you will get pricks who think making a religious or politicall statement will sell. But they would most likely abandon it if their goal if it ment a loss of profit.

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Why not some sort of

Why not some sort of compromise?  Restaurants in some places have to post ratings in their windows.  What if "pharmacies" that wanted to put religion before service to customers were allowed to do so but had to put a big sign in their window saying something like:

"NOT A FULL PHARMACY - We are religious.  Do not expect to receive full and adequate care from this establishment as we put our religious beliefs before your healthcare needs."

 

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MattShizzle wrote:I happen

MattShizzle wrote:

I happen to be against non-regulation of business but when it comes to something necessary like health care, it's not like something like a strip club or bookstore. This of course is a good reason to get rid of a free market economy but if we won't go that far we need to at least prevent them from being able to do shit like this.

Quote:
This of course is a good reason to get rid of a free market economy

WHAT?

So if our government said that Brian Sapient did not have the right to sell atheist shirts, or Richard Dawkins could not sell "The God Dellusion" or Evolve fish could not make a profit off of selling atheist merchindice, you would be ok with that?

YOU DO understand that WE are not in the majority, and it is the free market that gives us the oportunity to compete with the majority. If the majority were against the free market, like you imply(and correct me if I am wrong) who do you think the majority would squash first? Not themselves.

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I'm talking about getting

I'm talking about getting rid of capitalism altogether.


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MattShizzle wrote:I happen

MattShizzle wrote:

I happen to be against non-regulation of business but when it comes to something necessary like health care, it's not like something like a strip club or bookstore. This of course is a good reason to get rid of a free market economy but if we won't go that far we need to at least prevent them from being able to do shit like this.

The subject of pharms being allowed to sell or not sell is a touchy topic to be sure. For many years, I was one who would have stood right up and said, hell no, those pharmacies should have to sell whatever a person has a prescription for.

Just last year I had a conversation with several people which got me to thinking further and reexamining my own position.

As Matt noted in an earlier post, health care is a business and a very flourishing business it is, I might add. I don't like the idea of pharmacies denying necessary care, but therein lies what I see as the crux.

I've come to the conclusion that, as much as I hate to admit it, I no longer view condoms and the birth control pill as "necessary" care. While I also see that a case could be made, or at least well argued, that birth control and condoms are vital, in my opinion both are, at best, preventative care.

I'd be glad to change my mind again however, with a well reasoned argument.


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Fine, if the pharmacist

Fine, if the pharmacist would be forced to pay for an abortion for the woman who gets pregnant because she couldn't get the birth control. I personally am for as much regulation of business as possible - even better would be to outlaw any sort of private business period and have it all owned by the people and run by a very liberal government. I think they should at the very least lose their pharmacist license for that shit and probably get 10 years in prison where twice a year they get their arm broken. The very least I would agree to would be to get a pharmacists license someone would have to sign a paper that they will fill any legitimate prescription - that would also be something taught in the first semester of classes for anyone going to school to be a pharmacist. When it went into effect any pharmacist would have a choice of signing or going into another profession.

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MattShizzle wrote:I'm

MattShizzle wrote:

I'm talking about getting rid of capitalism altogether.

Not going to happen, ever, in any country. Do you really think that Putin lives in a shack? Do you really think the Royal Saudi family who runs a closed market lives in tents?

I am for private property and I am for people owning their own business. Government already fucks up everything it gets its hands on and I wouldn't trust it to tell me what to do for a living nor would I trust it to buy me a house or tell me where I can or cannot live.

I think your utopian attitude isa bit disturbing and maybe you dont realize that a government that thought like you WOULD NOT allow sites like this, UNLESS you were the majority running it, which would be highly unlikely.

With the free market comes responsibility, if you want to claim that the free market has lacked responsibility lately, I would agree. But I am not handing my entire life over to the govenrment, not my property or my mind. Just as you would not want a theocracy running your life or trying to control your mind.

Capitalism exists in every country. Iran's government capitalizes off of oil exports. Saudi's theocracy also is run off the capital off of oil revinue as well.

What we have here gives YOU trhe atheist and theist the OPORUNITY to compete. Competition is what we allow in the west. Iran and Saudi Arabia and even North |Korea dont allow competition.

|Competition is in line with evolution because that is what all species do to survive. I would rather us compete in an open market and fail, than to have government control every aspect of our lives. I dont want a nanny state.

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US moves to rescind healthcare 'conscience' rule

Read entire story  HERE

 

"The Obama administration moved formally on Friday to rescind a Bush administration rule to protect health workers who refuse to provide services and information on moral grounds, which had inflamed abortion-rights advocates...."

 

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