The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan filed a complaint with the Meijer supermarket chain after a woman says a pharmacist refused to fill her prescription to treat and complete a miscarriage. Not only did the pharmacist personally refuse to fill the prescription on religious grounds, but he also refused to transfer it to someone else who would fill it.
Thanks to the pharmacist’s obstruction, she was forced to leave her family vacation, the ACLU says. Since the medication is time-sensitive, she had to prioritize driving three hours to another pharmacy that would provide service.
On July 1 2018, Rachel Peterson’s OB/GYN called-in a prescription to the Petoskey Meijer pharmacy for medication to treat Ms. Peterson’s recent miscarriage. It was crucial for her to take the medication in a timely manner to avoid having to undergo a more invasive surgical procedure. But the Meijer pharmacist on duty refused to fill her prescription, saying that “as a good Catholic male,” he could not “in good conscience fill the prescription” because he believed it was her intention to use it to end a pregnancy. When Ms. Peterson told him that her OB/GYN found no signs of viability from the fetus, which confirmed an early pregnancy loss, he accused her of lying and said “that was just [her] word.”
I can’t imagine how painful it must be to have someone interfere with your medical care. It’s astonishing that this one pharmacist felt comfortable making that call. One person’s personal beliefs—and assumptions—shouldn’t override someone’s right to health care.
There’s also the issue of gender here. "I think it’s very clear in this case that had Rachel been a man seeking this exact same medication for stomach ulcers, she wouldn’t have been turned away for the same reason," Merissa Kovach, a policy strategist for the ACLU of Michigan, told Detroit Free Press.
The organization wants “an immediate investigation” into the matter, and for Meijer to create a policy that will guarantee all patients will be able to receive their prescribed medication.
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