Pharmacists Fired For Refusing to Give a Rape Victim Emergency Contraception

[CrimsonTide4]

Workers fired for refusing drug to rape victim

Pharmacists wouldn't provide emergency contraception

The Associated Press
Updated: 1:29 p.m. ET Feb. 12, 2004

DENTON, Texas - Eckerd Corp. has fired three pharmacists who declined to fill an emergency contraception prescription for a woman who had been raped, one of the pharmacists said Wednesday.


Gene Herr said he and two co-workers were fired Jan. 29, six days after refusing to fill the prescription. He said his own refusal was based on religious grounds.

Eckerd has declined to comment on their employment status. Joan Gallagher, the vice president of communications for Largo, Fla.-based Eckerd would say only that the company has taken appropriate disciplinary action.

Herr, 33, of Denton, said he declined to fill the prescription for the so-called “morning-after pill” because he believes it could have killed the embryo if the woman already had conceived. Though he had declined five or six times in the past to fill such prescriptions, it was the first time he had been handed one for a rape victim, he said.

“I went in the back room and briefly prayed about it,” said Herr, who had worked for Eckerd for five years. “I actually called my pastor ... and asked him what he thought about it.”

The two other pharmacists who were present also declined to fill the prescription. Herr would not name them.

The rape victim had the prescription filled at a nearby pharmacy.

Gallagher said Eckerd’s employment manual says pharmacists are not allowed to opt out of filling a prescription for religious, moral or ethical reasons.

Herr said he did not know about that policy until his supervisors questioned him about it shortly before he was fired.

“In my mind if I agree to work for someone knowing that that’s their policy, then I should submit to that policy. But I didn’t even know about it,” he said.

Morning-after pills are higher doses of the hormones in regular birth control pills and have been sold under the brand names Plan B and Preven since 1998. Taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse, the pills are at least 75 percent effective at preventing pregnancy.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am sure this will spark great debate so have at it.

[blackerican]

OMG!!!!!! Rape is such a tramatic incident for the victim and now she has to endure this!!!!! I know that people have opinions about the "Morning After" Pill but......when a person becomes a pharmacist they are supposed to fill prescriptions and that's it. They get paid to do a job!!!!! Not to "push" their morals on others.

[lovelyivy84]

I have to agree.

This has nothing to do with her having been raped. HE is there to do a job. If he has moral objections to the job he is paid to do, then he should not be there. It is that simple.

If your job legally requires you to do something that goes against your moral code, then you quit. You don't expect the people who hired you explicitly to do that job to change their policies for you. It doesn't matter if that task is dispensing aspirin or dispensing Emergancy Contraception. If you have a moral objection to either, you shouldn't be there.

[Honeykiss1974]

First, I didn't know Eckerd's was still open!

Second, if that is a requirement of his job (to dispense this type of medication) then he has to do it. If he is not comfortable with Eckerd's policy, then he should leave and find a faith based organization to work for.

For example, I work for a Catholic healthcare system and any physician that works for us must follow Catholic directives - which means they CAN NOT dispense birth control, morning after pill or perform abortions. Those that do not follow these directives are terminated.

If a physician did not want to follow these directives (for whatever reason) then it is unfair for him to expect us to change our policies.

[1sd]

Originally posted by Honeykiss1974

For example, I work for a Catholic healthcare system and any physician that works for us must follow Catholic directives - which means they CAN NOT dispense birth control, morning after pill or perform abortions. Those that do not follow these directives are terminated.

Ditto...

I also work for a Catholic hospital and if the physician doesn't agree to adhere to our policies...they need to move on to another facility.

I cannot believe that this pharmacist would even think that he had a right to do this. Before I started working in the hospital, I worked as a Certified Pharm Tech at Eckerd. If you work for a CHAIN pharmacy, you have no right to refuse anyone's service for your own personal reasons. The only time we ever refused service to someone is if they were belligerant/unruly with the staff, and even then...it was a security issue.

[SummerChild]

Originally posted by blackerican
OMG!!!!!! Rape is such a tramatic incident for the victim and now she has to endure this!!!!! I know that people have opinions about the "Morning After" Pill but......when a person becomes a pharmacist they are supposed to fill prescriptions and that's it. They get paid to do a job!!!!! Not to "push" their morals on others.

Amen. I agree completely. If you can't do the job, don't take it.

I'm just glad that she was able to get the prescription filled nearby. That's the only saving grace here.

SC

[aephi alum]

Agreed. It's not up to the pharmacist to decide whether or not to fill a prescription based on his own religious or ethical beliefs. The doctor has ordered drug X for the patient, and the pharmacist's job is to make sure that prescription is filled properly.

It would be another matter if one of the pharmacists were uncomfortable with the idea and had another pharmacist fill the prescription instead. This sort of thing happens all the time in hospitals, where some doctors object to performing abortions, tubal ligations, or vasectomies, but there are other doctors who will do so, so the procedure still gets done. But in this situation, even if all three pharmacists were against the idea, the bottom line is that somebody still needed to fill that prescription.

I'm surprised there were as many as three pharmacists on site, actually...