Quote:
Originally posted by valkyrie
If you don't want to dispense birth control, don't be a pharmacist, and if you have an employee who doesn't want to dispense birth control, fire him or her.
I think of it like this -- I'm a vegetarian, so I'm not about to go work at a job that would require me to serve meat. Seriously, DUH.
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I totally sign on to that!
These pharmacists aren't just performing an act of protest. They are using their position and power to prevent women from doing something which they have the right to do. This isn't a freedom of religion issue. Freedom of religion is "you can't force me to do X." Freedom of religion is not "I'm going to take a job where I know they will want me to do X and when they ask I am not only going to refuse but I am going to twart all other people's attempts to do X." That is a direct interference with other people's rights. It's wrong.
And while I know Rudey is going to be pist for this comment, the truth is that if this was a man's issue, it would be taken a lot more seriously by the people who make the laws (who are also mostly men). The problem is that women are not harnessing their political and economic power strongly enough on this issue. I wrote to Walmart about this because they expressly allow their pharmacists to refuse to dispense BC or EC. They actually have a stock email which they write back. It basically says "this is they way we do it. If you don't like it, screw you. We don't want to hear it." But when you look down the asiles of a Walmart, you know what you see? WOMEN! Shopping everywhere. In this patronizing patriarchial store, the people who are shopping are women. If women don't stand up and admit that they want access to BC and EC, and not just for hormonal regulation
, we aren't going to have any access. If you want to make a statement on these issues look into the places where you purchase stuff and ask yourself whether you really want your money going to a company that thinks that some random pharmacist should be able to override your constitutional right to BC.