by
Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 28,
2005
Washington,
DC (LifeNews.com) -- A leading abortion advocacy group has launched
a new campaign to target pro-life pharmacists and to lobby pharmacies
to make sure that they will fill all prescriptions for birth control
drugs, including those that could cause abortions.
NARAL announced the new campaign on Monday, citing reports of pro-life pharmacists opting against filling prescriptions for birth control and sometimes abortifacient drugs because of moral qualms.
"In 2005 it is appalling that women do not know whether their prescriptions will be filled," NARAL president Nancy Keenan said in a statement. "Pharmacies have an ethical and legal obligation not to endanger women's health by withholding basic health care. Pharmacies have no right to override a decision made by a woman and her doctor."
NARAL blasted "right wing politicians" in state legislatures in eleven states that are working to ensure pharmacists opposed to filling prescriptions for birth control and abortion causing drugs have the right to opt out without facing employment discrimination.
The NARAL campaign calls on its members to download a pledge card for customers to take to a local pharmacy for pharmacists to complete. Under the pledge, pharmacists agree to fill all such scripts.
The campaign also asks abortion advocates to complete a form letter to send to the headquarters of national pharmaceutical companies such as Walgreens or Osco Drug to extract a promise to fill the controversial prescriptions.
During the last year, the number of pharmacists wanting to exercise their moral or religious beliefs and opt out of dispensing abortion-causing drugs is on the rise.
Earlier this month, a Wisconsin judge ruled that a pro-life pharmacist should be reprimanded for refusing to fill a customer's prescription because he believed the drug causes abortions and violates his moral beliefs.
Wisconsin Right to Life disagreed saying the decision "proves what happens when an individual's moral beliefs and livelihood are on a collision course."
Last February, Denton, Texas pharmacist Gene Herr and two co-workers were fired by Eckerd Corporation, after they refused to fill a woman's prescription for the "morning after pill."
Gene Rudd, associate director of the Christian Medical Association says forty-five states have passed conscience clause laws for physicians, and that protection should be extended to pharmacists -- as has been done in Illinois and South Dakota.
Pharmacists for Life International has also strongly supported the right of pro-life pharmacists to opt out.
Related
web sites:
Pharmacists for Life International - http://www.pfli.org
