You’ll have read that a pharmacist at a Meijer store, hiding behind his religious beliefs — he calls himself a “good Catholic male” — refused to fill an Rx for misoprostol (which is also used to treat ulcers) because he thought that the woman with the script was using the drug to end her pregnancy. (She wasn’t. The drug had been prescribed to prevent complications after she had a miscarriage. Which is, you know, none of his fucking business.)
At a pragmatic level, Meijer’s policy — which allows a pharmacist to refuse to fill a script based on religious beliefs, though s/he must ask another Meijer pharmacist to fill it or must transfer the script to another pharmacy “convenient” to the customer — is troubling. Suppose no other pharmacist is on duty? Suppose all pharmacists in a branch or an area hold the same religious beliefs? Suppose the nearest branch is several miles away and the customer lacks transportation?
At an ethical and legal level, this is appalling. Separation of church and state is one of the explicit foundations of the U.S. system of governance. Anyone who is or wants to be a medical professional — who deals with or will deal with issues of life and death — must leave those beliefs outside the workplace. And the only way to ensure that they do so is for employers to rewrite their employee policies such that every employee must fill every legal script; anyone whose religious beliefs are incompatible with such a policy is free to choose a different profession.
Until we’re able, with Dem majorities in Congress, to seek legislation to ensure unrestricted access to legally prescribed meds, we need to vote with our dollars. Boycott this chain until it requires all employees to fill all legal scripts for all legal meds, and let it know that you’re doing so. Thanks.