AND AFTER ALL, WHO WANTS MORAL VALUES:

Casting a Chill on the Pill: The nation's largest pharmacy chain brings moral values to Minnesota (Bridgette Reinsmoen, 2/16/05, City Pages)

A year ago, a rape victim in Denton, Texas, went to an Eckerd drugstore to fill a prescription for emergency contraception, sometimes known as the "morning after pill." When taken within 72 hours of intercourse, the drug prevents conception. At the counter of the drugstore, however, the woman got an unpleasant surprise: The pharmacist on duty, Gene Herr, declared that it was against his moral beliefs to dispense the drug.

Herr later told the Associated Press that he had refused to fill similar prescriptions five or six times in the past. But, Herr added, this was the first time he'd been handed such a prescription for a rape victim. "I went in the back room and briefly prayed about it," he explained. Apparently, God said no. Herr's two co-workers also refused to fill the prescription, and the rape victim was left to find another pharmacy.

The Eckerd employees involved in the Denton case were all eventually fired. However, the story doesn't end there. It turns out that the nation's largest pharmacy chain, the CVS Corporation, has instituted a policy tailor-made for employees like Herr. Under the rule, CVS pharmacists can refuse to fill prescriptions on the basis of "deeply held personal beliefs."

In a separate case last March, a married mother of two was denied her prescription for regular birth control pills by a CVS pharmacist in Texas.

There have been no reported incidents of pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions in Minnesota to date. But the tales from Texas, and a similar incident closer to home in Madison, Wisconsin, have raised concern among many local women's rights advocates--especially given the fast-growing chain's expanding presence in Minnesota. (Little more than a year ago, there was not a single CVS store in Minnesota. Now there are nine and more on the way.)

According to Tina Smith, vice president of external affairs at Planned Parenthood Minnesota/South Dakota, there are no federal laws addressing the issue of "refusal clauses"--or, as proponents call them, "conscience clauses." But there is movement afoot on the state level. Several states, including South Dakota, have recently enacted legislation allowing pharmacists to refuse to dispense any medication on "moral grounds." While no such legislation has been introduced in Minnesota, according to Smith, there is nothing on the books to prevent companies from enacting their own refusal clauses.

Fitting that abortion, which was imposed on America from the top down, has been fought from the ground up.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 17, 2005 3:34 PM