If you have a uterus, click.

[emmagrant01]

Or hell, even if you don't have a uterus, you should click too.

ginmar reports on how some pharmacists and doctors are now refusing to prescribe birth control for "moral" reasons. And it's perfectly legal.

A favorite quote: "So, tell me. Do cops get to decide which laws they enforce? And on whom? Oh, yeah, they do---problem is, when they do that, it gets called---among other things----'civil rights violations' and 'racism.'"

Thanks to batagur for the link!

Comments

[batagur.livejournal.com]

Always happy to spread the word. It was just utterly shocking that such a thing can happen in this day and age.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! So very, very fucked up. :-P

[tipgardner.livejournal.com]

That's absurd. If it goes anywhere, I would think the US Supreme Court will get involved at some point. The attempt to use Christianity to continually act in as un-Christian a manner as possible never ceases to amaze me. It has nothing to do with logic. One can't argue logically with people who are this illogical. Even arguing religiously is difficult as many people refuse to believe that they are ignoring portions of their religion in favour or others.

[lauramcewan.livejournal.com]

Sounds like the Inquisition and the Crusades all over again.

[dawnywog.livejournal.com]

This issue is one of my gripes! We have a doctor in the area who's Catholic and who refuses to prescribe the pill. It would be one thing if she made this her policy and all her own patients knew this in advance. However, she covers for practically all the doctors when they go on their vacations.

So you make an appointment with your own family doctor months in advance because of the doctor shortage in the area, but then you don't find out until you show up for your appointment that he's on vacation but don't worry this doctor's filling in.

When you get in the examining room this doctor point blank refuses to write you a prescription for the birth control pill that your family doctor, who she's filling in for, precribed you. Never mind that you've been on it for years or anything-you're not getting it period.

Then you have to go wait at the emergency room at the hospital for 10-12 hours just to get your prescription. IT'S SO MADDENING! It happens all the time.

[mrshamill.livejournal.com]

Mark gave me the word on this, and I just noted it in Liz's journal too. http://www.occams-razor.info/

I'm so angry I can barely see straight.

[ms-mindfunk.livejournal.com]

I've known about this for a while because it came up in a discussion of doctors and pharmacists refusing to prescribe or dispense MAP. I know a pharmacist who is one of these nutters who thinks her personal ideology trumps a patient's right to receive legally prescribed meds. It doesn't matter how you put it to her or what facts you share - she thinks it's her personal right to refuse to fill any prescription for personal reasons, and any employer who forced her to do it would be in the wrong.

What pisses me off the most about fuckwittery like this is that once again it's the poor and the struggling who will suffer most from these policies. Women who cannot afford to pay out of pocket to see a doctor other than their PCP, or women who live in rural areas and have access to only one physician are not going to be able to continue taking the pill if their doc goes fundie on them. What about teens who can't get to another doctor without mom and dad finding out why? What about small towns with only one pharmacy? Women are not going to stop being sexually active, (or stop being raped, for that matter) so what do these zealots think is gonna happen? Are they going to pony up the cash for the social services needed to handle the baby boom?

My biggest fear is that Wal-Mart is going to decide to stop dispensing birth control pills. They have such a stranglehold on the American consumer that if that happened, thousands of women would have nowhere to get their prescriptions filled. If I remember correctly, they refuse to carry the MAP, so there are already thousands of women who have nowhere to turn for emergency contraception.

Why do people think their belief in a religion and its tenets gives them the right to determine how others should live? Jesus wasn't about judgment and self-righteousness, so how have huge segments of his followers become such assholes?

[helens78]

I don't mind if doctors have issues with prescribing birth control. I have a big problem with them springing it unexpectedly on patients. To me, that screams "bait-and-switch" -- you bring someone in who's expecting to come in for something specific, go through the whole checkup, and then tell her she can't have that specific thing, without which she wouldn't be at your office in the first place? Huh?

My family doctor recently started her own practice. She's devoutly Catholic, and her letter to all her patients let us know up-front that her practice will not cover birth control. We were given the option to stick with her despite that or to switch to a different doctor in the clinic she used to work in. I don't have a problem with that at all (especially since I have a separate gynecologist who handles my birth control anyway). I would honestly have a bigger problem with my doctor being prevented from starting her own private practice that adheres to her personal values than I do with doctors doing this in the first place.

Her new practice, btw, is called "Mary's Family Medicine" and has a picture of the Madonna-with-baby on all the business cards, letterheads, the building, etc. New patients are informed up-front that they can't get birth control advice or prescriptions from her. She is not the only choice in healthcare for anyone she handles. Again, I have no problem with this. If you don't like the way she handles her business, you have the option to go somewhere else.

I have a bigger problem with pharmacists pulling this on people. I think if you work in a pharmacy, you should be prepared to fill all the prescriptions that the pharmacy stocks (including being informed on their potential side effects, etc.), unless your training leads you to believe that you're handing over a life-threatening combination of pills. If I happened to own a pharmacy and found out that one of my pharmacists was pulling that on people, I'd fire her for not doing her job properly. Now, if the pharmacy is one that clearly does not stock birth control of any kind, then that's a different story. It's not a pharmacy I'd frequent or that I'd work at (if I were trained as a pharmacist), but again, I'd consider that their choice.

[littleroo27.livejournal.com]

This is related. My stepmom just e-mailed it to me. how SAD is this.

http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/long_way/

[phoenix-starr.livejournal.com]

Ummm... why don't you just go somewhere else? I mean good grief, they very nearly give the stuff away on street corners. If the freaken' doctor doesn't want to prescribe it then take your business elsewhere. Let your displeasure be expressed with your purse. We don't need a bunch of laws about it or a Oh-I'm-god-hear-me-rule Supreme Court case.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I am so not going to dignify this with a coherent response. If you don't understand why this is a huge issue for women's reproductive health and rights from reading the comments above, nothing I say will change your mind.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

But how does the pharmicist know what you're taking the drug for? A small but significant number of women take the pill for health reasons, and not necessarily to prevent pregnancy. That pharmacist has the right to believe what she wants, but her job is to fulfill the prescriptions that were determined as necessary for the patient by her doctor.

And then there's the issue of true choice. It's easy for those of us who have decent health care plans to say "Just go to another doctor or another pharmacist." But some women don't have that choice.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Great point.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

What pisses me off the most about fuckwittery like this is that once again it's the poor and the struggling who will suffer most from these policies.

Abso-fucking-lutely.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

That is beyond ridiculous and outrageous. I have no words.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Me too!

[belleweather.livejournal.com]

Are you familliar with the term "HMO"? Perhaps "Pharmacy-tied Drug Plan" would ring a better bell? The sad state of health care in the united states is that increasingly people don't have the OPTION to go elsewhere for a prescription.

[belleweather.livejournal.com]

We've had the in-aptly names 'conscience' law in Wisconsin for a while now (Inaptly named because wow... you'd think if you had a conciencious objection that you might just find something else to do with your life other than be a pharmacist!), but for it to pass constitutional muster in our state it had to be specifically spelled out that you had to notify patients before hand and a pharmacist could refuse to fill an Rx, but that then a responsibility devolved on to them to find someone else *in their orginization* who would fill it or they would have to get over themselves. (Also, that in an emergency they had to get over themselves anyway)

Now, of course, the stupid Republicans who have already been told that bills to the contrary are unconstitional are trying to remove those safety provisions and make it so that they can just decide not to treat/fill your Rx and leave you hanging. Pretty scary, since the only hospital under my HMO is Catholic and believes very strongly that when dealing with issues of Obstetrical emergencies they should save the baby at the expense of the mother. And they wonder why I'm hoping to go into labour *anywhere else!*

[melonaise.livejournal.com]

What pisses me off the most about fuckwittery like this is that once again it's the poor and the struggling who will suffer most from these policies.

And the people who don't care about this asshattery, because they're well-off enough to have other options and they don't think that there are people who are seriously affected.

[phoenix-starr.livejournal.com]

You are most likely right as I don't see why if the doctor you were planning to see isn't there and you get one that won't write you the script that you can't call in the next day and ASK the RN to get it called into the pharmacy or perhaps ask the RN while you are there if she can't get one of the OTHER doctors there to write the script. That if you are unlucky enough to be in a one horse town with ONE pharmacy with a nut that won't fill said script that you can use mail order. That is you are underage and your family doctor won't give you said script without telling your parents, how every Health Department I've ever been to, seen, or heard of won't GIVE you the stuff upon request. Save for in rare cases, these drugs are for the most part Recreational not health reasons. All it takes is a little planning ahead and a little common sense, not a bunch of laws. What happened to the doctor's choice? The doctor's right to convictions and beliefs? None of the comments I saw mentioned the drugs being withheld when they were medically needed. I personally think it is a stupid thing to do, to not give the script when requested baring medical reasons, but hey... it's called diversity.

[phoenix-starr.livejournal.com]

Health Department where they give it away to anyone that asks, at least every town I've ever lived in they did. Also, the drug companies themselves give millions of dollars of the stuff away every year. Doctors themselves ALSO give away tons of samples that were given to them by drug reps. And how about Planned Parenting and other such organizations? It was my understanding that they gave it away too. Also, I'm sure there are other alternatives as well.

[belleweather.livejournal.com]

Planned Parenthood charges, dear. Always have. Although they charge on a sliding fee scale, and have some assistence available... for people below 100% of the FPL. Many -if not most- health departments only offer assistence to those qualifying for Medicaid, which is generally only available to those with children in the home, who are disabled, or who are over 65. Not to mention that "giving away" birth control is often barred for political reasons -- states don't want to spend public dollars on something so incendiary. If your state health department truly offers family planning services for free, I'd be amazed -- and you'd be in the very small minority. Applying for a drug company subsidy for medication requires that you show a pressing economic and medical need and none of the companies that I've personally delt with (which include Pfizer, Merk Pharma, J&J and a few that offer off-brand and/or generic drugs) consider birth control to be a pressing medical need. As far as physician samples, that involves having the ability to SEE a physician, not to mention that for it to work correctly, birth control (at least the pill form, which is what we're discussing here) needs to be taken every day, and a physician's supply of 'samples' is neither reliable nor inexhaustable -- they're meant to be teasers, not reliable sources of medication.

I'd love to hear about the 'other options' your sure are out there ... this is what I do for a living, and if getting other coverage for pharmaceuticals is so bloody easy, then I have a client who is slowly dying from cancer and heart disease for lack of medicine because he has no income whom I can't get get qualified for any state aid and the pharmaceutical 'samples' and drug aid to the needy have run out. I'm sure *he* would be very happy to hear that it's so easy.

And yeah, you probably didn't deserve that rant at all and just stuck your nose into the wrong place and shouldn't get metaphorically screamed at because I'm upset with my place in the world and did NOT go to law school expecting to watch my first client die by inches for want of a few measley hundreds of dollars with of drugs when there is nothing that I can do...but I feel like I've got to tell you that it is just not as easy a picture as you'd like to paint!

[kirili.livejournal.com]

LOL

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Or because they're clueless about reality? Or they believe the GOP propaganda suggesting that poor women (a) just can't keep their legs closed and don't deserve assistance with birth control; (b) aren't smart enough to figure out how not to get pregnant; (c) that government agencies and private foundations are still places where people can go for free help (even though the Republicans have worked quite had to ensure that dream is no longer a reality); (d) that abstinence is the best policy -- even if you're married/in a committed relationship, and simply don't want to have more children.

Apparently ignorance is bliss. Haughty, condescending, head-up-the-ass bliss.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

One of the things that's great about LJ is that there always seems to be an intelligent knowledgable person on my f-list who can give details about any issue I can post about. Thanks for the details!

All of this just reconfirms my belief that women's rights are becoming weaker every day. When it's literally easier to get viagra in this country than birth control, what does that say about the importance of women's reproductive health?

Oh, and when are you due? :-D

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

It is scary, and so many people are blind to it. Rights and priveleges I've taken for granted my entire life are being chipped away every day, and there's just enough people out there that either don't care or refuse to face reality that it will continue to happen.

[agaysexicon.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I'm here through belleweather's link / post with a message from your government.

Hi!

Welcome to The United States of America, where our long, rich tradition of freedom and opportunity have made us the second most requested nation to be terrorized. While you're here, feel free to enjoy the righteous and God-given economic bonuses and wonderful health care system, almost free of charge...

Wait, WHAT? You're not a White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant (Catholics are ok, I guess, just so long as you're not into all that 'Buddha' or 'Allah' bullshit) Man? Well, get the fuck out of here. You are not important. In fact, now that you've pissed me off by being not a WASPM, I'm gonna do everything in my power to make sure you have no rights at all. Why? Because that's what the Bible says, and what the Bible says is, obviously, the final word on anything law related. Just ask belleweather, unless that opinion is contrary to what I just said.

In conclusion, I rule, you drool.

- The Man

(Sorry, but this sort of mentality seems to be all too prevelant in this society, especially in the legislative branches of not only Federal government, but also state as well. I happen to be of a different opinion, and for the record, I'm completely in favor of birth control being subsidized (instead of say, oil and gas) so that people who need it can get it anywhere and so that people who want it have access to it. It just doesn't seem to be the case. I'm highly worried that a girl I know who's on BC for the incapacitatingly painful cramps she gets every cycle (she's on DEPO and it's been working wonders for years for her cramps) will eventually get a doctor who doesn't believe in it and she'll be screwed. I know I'm a guy and all, but I bellieve that - very vehemently believe - that health care, PROPER and DECENT health care is a right, not a privilage. I certainly think that belleweather's 'client' (is he officially now?) should have access to those drugs and treatment, especialyl after what he's been through. /rant)

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I do believe your icon says it all! :-P

[ms-mindfunk.livejournal.com]

Unless one lives in a major city, health departments cover an entire county. Many counties only have HD facilities in the county seat (where the courthouse and all other county government reside.) How do you suggest a woman without a car should get herself to the heath department when it's in another town 20+ miles away? What about a woman who has a car, but also has a day job that she works during all hours the county HD is open? What do you, in your infinite wisdom, suggest these women do when their doctor or pharmacy refuses to give them birth control?

Planned Parenthood has less than 850 clinics in 49 states. So, contrary to what you seem to believe, not everyone has one right around the corner. Women who are refused service from their own doctor or pharmacy run into the same problems with accessibility that I've already mentioned. If there's one located anywhere in the county, they still have to have transportation and be able to get there when the clinic is open.

Poor women, very young women, single mothers and abused women (who often need to seek services on the sly) are going to have a difficult time getting the birth control they desperately need under these conditions. The populations who are in the worst place to bring a child into the world are the ones most likely to lose their access to birth control, and that's a fucking travesty.

[belleweather.livejournal.com]

The Viagra thing really tweaks me out. I mean... wow. It's totally and completely a recreational drug - not being able to get an erection is just not a huge medical issue in my world! Let's spend our national dollars to help women enjoy sex for a change -- or at the very least cure cancer and infertility and autism and all sorts of other good stuff -- before we worry about old men being able to perv out with stiffies that just don't quit, you know? Ewww. The whole idea just squicks me, bad.

I'm due in November. They *say* November 12th, but I'm entirely and completely certian that the baby is coming the 18th, if only to interfere with my perving out at the GOF premire.