Washington Pharmacists: “No Sluts Will Darken Our Doorway”
The State of Washington recently passed a law requiring all pharmacies to maintain a supply of Plan B, the emergency contraceptive. A pharmacist can still refuse to sell Plan B, but ONLY if another pharmacist is present who's willing to fill the order.
Washington is one of the most liberal states in the country, but it still took a huge public outcry, and pressure from the governor, to get the State Board of Pharmacy to adopt this law. And now some pharmacists have filed a lawsuit, claiming the law violates their “Constitutional rights.” Ah yes, I remember now: the Constitutional right to tell fallen women and pregnant sluts to get the fuck out of your store and go straight to Hell.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are pharmacists Rhonda Mesler and Margo Thelen, and Stormans Inc., the owners of Ralph's Thriftway in Olympia, WA, a grocery store that includes a pharmacy.
One of the favorite soundbites from the Far Right is that there are “too many lawyers,” “too much litigation.” So far the Rightwing reaction to this particular lawsuit has been “___________________________________.”
When the pharmacists filing the lawsuit were asked whether they themselves would be willing to adopt and raise the children whose births they insisted on, their answer was “________________________________.”
Labels: Margo Thelen, Ralph's Thriftway, Rhonda Mesler, Stormans Inc., Washington Pharmacists, Washington State Board of Pharmacy
posted by Tom Harper @ 11:27 PM
18 Comments:
I just cannot understand the right. They cry about women abortion and yet they block any and everything that helps women who are raped, make mistakes or just trying to keep from getting pregnant.
Everyone knows that the right doesn't care about a new born once they are here.
They cry about money being given for children health care, food stamps and the over all care of a child that is actually here in this world.
This plan B would help a lot of women and all we are getting are pharmacist not doing there job, but trying to tell others what they will not honor by a doctors prescription.
Let's Talk: Yeah, it's impossible to understand those people. They probably don't understand themselves. Every grade school child who's had a sex education class can see the connection between reduced access to birth control and an increase in abortions. And yet millions of Biblethumpers are unable to grasp this. They worship the fetus until it's been born and then it's "go on, get outta here, you're on your own now."
The reasons for all the "too many lawyers" and "too much litigation" mantra are manyfold, I'm sure.
Obviously, the Republicans want to protect their corporate sponsors from losing money, so of course they will try to cut down on the amounts and types of lawsuits that can be filed.
Deeper than that, though, is what I believe to be a worse reason; the politicians know that many of the lawyers involved in such cases contribute their money to the Democratic party, thus we have all the rightist whining about "tort reform", for example. As they continue to convince us Americans that we shouldn't have the right to sue big companies or even sue anyone at all, fewer cases will be heard and fewer dollars may go into Democratic coffers.
I don't like excessive lawsuits any more than the right wingers do, but I will say I think people should be allowed to sue, because the simple availability of suing helps to keep those being sued accountable. I believe this correlation may be true: as large interests have become less accountable we have seen more lawsuits. I think it's kind of like the way unions help keep employers accountable... and the Republicans don't like unions, either. They don't want Americans to be able to sue, and they don't want American workers to unionize. Why do they hate accountability?
As for pharmacists who won't dispense certain items for religious reasons, why don't they all just quit their day jobs and become evangelists? They should know that not everyone in the world is going to walk on eggshells around their faith all the time... nor should any of the rest of us have to. If they believe their faith sets them above the rest of us, even when it comes to the workplace, maybe they don't belong in a job where they have to serve the needs of others.
I think our society has become far too politically correct when it comes to criticism of religion. When we criticize another person's political beliefs, it slides. When we criticize somebody's unbelief in Christianity, it slides. When we criticize the validity of somebody's religious beliefs or the way in which certain groups use religion as a tool for spreading fear or for gaining votes, we critics are often portrayed as persecutors, out to deny people their religious freedoms, when in fact all we may really be doing is asking questions.
It seems to me that the very same people who complain the most about political correctness from the lefties are some of the first to invoke the "persecution complex" at even the slightest suggestion of any criticism of their religious beliefs. I think it is one of the biggest double standards in our society today, and I think it's time the taboo be lifted when it comes to making critical remarks about religion, or even simply in questioning another person's beliefs.
LT, I think the right doesn't care about a fetus once it's born, particularly if that fetus is born into poverty. Because Republicans view aid or help as something that must be "earned" by the recipient, they will be against nearly all entitlements, even for children living in poverty... and the worst part of that is, these kids are born into poverty through no fault of their own. Thus, as I see it, denying basic health care for such children is tantamount to blaming them for conditions over which they have no control, even when they are just infants.
After Hurricane Katrina and the administration's lame response to it, Kanye West made the famous remark "Bush doesn't care about black people." I think "people living in poverty" can be added to the list of people he doesn't care about. "Average people" could be added as well, as could "Democrats", "women",
"Americans who are not white" and "Americans who are not Christians".
Once we whittle it down to wealthy white Christian male Republicans, we need to then ask, "For what percentage of our population does Bush really work?" If that number is somewhere around 5% or 10%, and you add in the people who have been snookered by that same 5% or 10%, you probably get the 25% to 30% number that shows up in polls as a "favorable" rating for Bush.
Jesusistani Pharmacists have been noisy all over the place. More and more companies are telling them to fill the prescriptions, or find another job. This is as it should be. If you have "religious" objections to filling ANY prescription, the Pharmacy is not the place for you.
Rich white men have been telling women what to do forever. The conservatives claim life begins at conception, although there is no scientific support for such a claim. That's why they have a problem with Plan B.
BTW, mt first remark comes with a caveat: I'm a POOR white man!
Snave: That's a good point. Labor unions and the courts are two levers in our society for reducing the gap between the richest and poorest, the powerful and the powerless. Conservatives hate this idea since they'd rather have one percent of the population holding the other 99% over a barrel.
It's true that trial lawyers are a powerful group that gets excessive, but I don't think anybody (except trial lawyers) is in favor of excessive litigation. But it sure provides a lot of soundbites for rightwingers. There's absolutely no reason a pharmacist (or anybody else) should be allowed to put his/her "morals" above the job they're being paid for. They need to do their jobs and hit the road.
Like you said, it's amazing how many millions of middle and lower-class people keep voting for Republicans, even though they're cutting their own throats by supporting those policies.
Jolly Roger: Damn right. If their religious convictions are so important to them, they should become ministers.
Kip152: So true. All this uproar about sacred fetuses is just the modern-day version of the Salem Witch Trials and the Spanish Inquisition.
"Ah yes, I remember now: the Constitutional right to tell fallen women and pregnant sluts to get the fuck out of your store and go straight to Hell."
Nothing else for me to add, because it says it all!
Mentarch: Yup, it's in the Christian Constitution somewhere, I just know it.
Are all the Pharmacists so driven by their position in the healthcare industry that they are mainly neocons?
Deciding who gets what prescription sounds like another part of Bush's view of America.
Larry: I'd guess these witch-hunting pharmacists are a small minority; I hope so anyway. But this sure doesn't bode well for Bush's vision of America. Faith-based initiatives, breaking down the wall between church and state -- these neocons should move to Iran or Afghanistan and leave America for people who can think for themselves.
Indeed, Plan B, the neocons keep forgetting, isn't abortion, but rather souped-up contraception. It doesn't make women want to be loose, but rather gives them a chance to keep themselves safe in case of an accident. Oh, but that would involve empowering women, who are only meant to be brood mares. As George Carlin once said, "Conservatives want women to have live babies so they can grow up to be dead soldiers. If you're preborn, you're fine, but if you're preschool, you're f****d."
And hang on, but don't you become a pharmacist because you at least somewhat buy the whole notion of science? If you want to talk morals, then for every Plan B script you refuse to fill, you also have to refuse to fill a Viagra script.
any pharmacist that is not prepared to fill a properly obtained prescription should be fired.
end of story.
you don't get to pick what drugs a person gets to take. that's for the doctor to decide.
what if someone that works IT with me all of a sudden says that he's not going to support MS products anymore because he has a problem with the company?
here's your last check, dude.
Mile High Pixie: That's a great quote from George Carlin. And that's true, you have to understand science and logic in order to become a pharmacist, so what's up with all these pharmacists who are wrapped up in the Old Testament? And like you say, they probably don't have this "moral" problem with Viagra.
Mike: Yes, definitely they should be fired, end of story. There are so many possible variations -- a vegetarian who works at McDonald's who refuses to serve hamburgers; you name it. I don't know why pharmacists should be singled out for special treatment.
The American Taliban is at it again. Why aren't these sanctimonious pharmacists who profess concern for human life concerned about the one million people who have died in the Iraq War?
They haven't said a word against the Christian President whose lies have caused so much death and misery. And what about the severely deformed monster babies being born to Iraqi women who have been exposed to the depleted uranium used on American weapons? How is it OK to poison pregnant mothers with depleted uranium?
I sure am glad I'm a Humanist!
Kitchen Window Woman: Yup, those righteous pharmacists have lots of questions to answer. The silence is deafening. Of course, the people in Iraq poisoned by Depleted Uranium are a different race and they worship the wrong god, so they don't count. And since fetuses are no longer sacred after they've been born, those millions of war deaths don't count either.
When you have God on your side you aren't accountable to anybody. Must be nice.
15 years ago it was home pregnancy tests.
10 Years ago it was home AIDS test.
35 Years ago it was the pill.
40 Years ago it was Condoms.
Will they ever quit?
Erik
I remember 20 years ago a Jewish Doctor in San Jose refused to treat a skinhead with a Swastika tattoo (he turned him over to a colleague).
The "Liberal Press" was all over him about ethics and there was talk of disciplinary action from the Medical Association.
The Local news interviewed the skinhead (whom had a hard time putting two vowels together) and he was talking about his right to be treated and how they were violated. No one asked him how he felt about being treated by a Jew with his beliefs - I believe he was riding the bandwagon, and I never knew the outcome of that.
The point is made that the Doctor was wrong. Just like the old "white's only" hospitals that would turn away a black even if he was critical and dying.
Medical Ethics exceed the religious ones - in fact Medical Ethics were based on some of the religious ones.
Erik
Erik: I don't remember that case about the Jewish doctor and the skinhead. But it's true that medical ethics always take priority. Doctors and pharmacists should never be allowed to insert their own "moral" objections into a medical issue.
As far as "will they ever quit?" I doubt it.
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