SB 117 – Dispensing birth control – Sen. Drozda:
Provides that a person may not be required, as a condition of training, employment, pay, promotion, or privileges, to dispense: (1) a medical device or drug that may result in, or that is intended to result in, an abortion; or (2) a birth control device or medication.
I think this bill should be amended so that potential employers and customers where such an employee works have clear warning when they’re about to encounter such a person. A pharmacy ought to be aware that it will have to hire a second person if it wants to remain in the business of selling birth control and, obviously, a customer shouldn’t find themselves in the position of having to run from pharmacy to pharmacy hoping they find an employee without moral hangups about doing his or her job.
[tags]SB117-2007, abortion[/tags]
I guess my question is – why does this have to be legislated at all? Is there someone forcing pharmacists to dispense medication? Isn’t this something that a pharmacist and their employer can work out on their own? How many times has this become an issue that had to go to court?
I just don’t “get” this issue. You are a pharmacist, but your job is not to be a moral gatekeeper for drugs that a doctor has prescribed. You have to assume that the patient has already taken the moral decision into account and that you need to fulfill the request. If you don’t like dealing with these sorts of issues, or feel a need to impart your morality onto others, then you are in the wrong profession.
Its crazy to me the amount of time we spend our legislative budget on, in relation to real problems Hoosier face every day.
This arises from some pharmacists deciding to be the moral chaperones of America and not dispense meds as prescribed. Fine. But they shouldn’t have additional protections placed on their jobs. If enough of the public gets annoyed about a stranger critiquing their sexual habits and decide to boycott, the pharmacist should be able to be canned. And for the few asshole pharmacists who have not only refused to fill it, but have also refused to return the prescription to the customer, the law should allow the customer to slap the crap out of the pharmacist. Our time is valuable, and a pharmacist shouldn’t feel at liberty to waste it.
And of course this again shows the frequently-present linkage of abortion and birth control. These people simply want sex to always be procreative.
I agree with Dave. Pharmacists are not “moral gatekeepers.” The decision to medicate, treat, and prevent rests with the patients and the doctors. The pharmacists are there to dispense and be knowledgeable of the drugs. That is their job.