Take Aim At Target...

[lagilman]

"Imagine walking into a pharmacy with a prescription and being
told by the pharmacist, 'I won't fill it. It's my right not to
fill it.' Yes, it's outrageous, but this is exactly what
happened to a 26-year-old woman who presented a prescription for
emergency contraception at a Target in Fenton, MO, on September
30. Planned Parenthood is demanding that pharmacists dispense
medication, not moral judgment, and we need your voice to be
heard, too."

Contact Target and insist that every woman's pills be filled --
now!
http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/fillmypillsnow_target/



Target has ignored three attempts by Planned Parenthood
Federation of America (PPFA) to determine their national policy
regarding pharmacists' refusal to fill valid, legal
prescriptions for birth control, including emergency
contraception. But they cannot ignore hundreds of thousands of
potential customers.

Contact Target now >>
http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/fillmypillsnow_target/

Pharmacies must ensure that women get their prescriptions filled
in-store, without discrimination or delay!

Karen Pearl
Interim President
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
On behalf of the Planned Parenthood community

---------------------------------------------

PERSONAL STORY
"When the pharmacist told me she wouldn't [fill the
prescription] I went from disbelief to shock to anger. I guess
I'm still pretty angry. It seems unbelievable to me that a
medical professional could/would deny access to a federally
approved drug and impose their personal beliefs in a
professional setting. I am also grateful that I did not need it
filled at that time. I don't know how it would be if I had just
been raped or if the condom broke and I was a feeling confusion
and panic anyway -- and then was denied access and told to go
across the street."

More >> http://www.ppaction.org/ct/DpqKFl412zoN/

---------------------------------------------

Join Our Response Team >>
http://www.ppaction.org/ct/DdqKFl412zoA/

Learn More >> http://www.ppaction.org/ct/D7qKFl412zoM/

Take Action >> http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/fillmypillsnow_target/

Tell a Friend >> http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/fillmypillsnow_target/forward/




And while you're at it, show your support for CVS, which to-date has made a policy of filling ALL prescriptions, no questions asked, no unwanted moral judgements handed down.

Comments

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

Target!? Damn. I've been using Target ever since this fiasco first started, especially after Target pharmicists in two different states (VA and TX) assured me that Target's policy is clear: you fill a legal prescription. As one pharmacist said to me, "I could always opt to not fill a prescription, but I'd better be packing my bags because I won't have a job here after that."

She said Target hadn't given pharmacists any specifics one way or another about personal beliefs and whatnot, but that the standing policy was already pretty definitive that legal prescriptions must be filled. That's the pharmacist's job: to fill prescriptions, not to be a doctor and judge prescriptions.

Hmph. Has Target yet made any formal announcement about its side of the situation? As in, "we're firing that person and it won't happen again" or just "no comment"? If it's the former, I'll keep going there; if it's the latter, I'll start going to Costco. Err, any idea where to find out Costco's stand on prescription filling?

*headdesk, repeat as needed*

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

btw, might want to change your links -- they all go to a site that has your info pre-entered. FYI.

[hoosier-red.livejournal.com]

CVS carries that policy onward from Eckerd's, which it bought last year. A local Eckerd's around here had a pharmacist who refused to fill a prescription on moral grounds -- they fired him.

[lagilman]

Thanks for the reminder -- I knew that Move.On did that, but hadn't twigged to the fact that PP was doing it as well. I understand their logic, and it's good logic, but annoying to those of us who share our newsletters...

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

Click on "if you are not this user" (just above your name, on the right) and it'll give you a fresh link.

[lagilman]

I've been using CVS for ten years now, and they've always been a bedrock of Yankee pragmatism: "we're here to take your money, not make judgement calls." I can respect that. :-)

[kaitiana.livejournal.com]

Ugh. I live 5-10 minutes away from Fenton, MO. While I don't shop at the Target in question, I do shop at a closer Target from time to time. I suppose I will not be doing that until they take a stand against allowing pharmacists to act like the Morality Police. It's all WELL AND GOOD to have personal moral stances I disagree with, but if you can't fulfill ALL the obligations of your job then it's time for you to seek another career path. Especially when that job involves the health and well-being of other people.

As a Pharmacist

[cogitationitis.livejournal.com]

I don't want to be forced to fill every legal prescription that flies across the bench. Maybe there's horrible drug interactions involved which the doctors are deliberately belittling (yes, it's happened). Maybe I know the person's a drug addict, shopping every doc for 20 miles. I agree that refusing to fill a prescription for emergency contraception on moral grounds is wrong, but where does it stop? I agree the company has a right to fire the pharmacist, so long as they have a specific policy. But there are pharmacists out there who won't dispense birth control pills (since the 60's), or won't sell condoms, or a lethal dose of barbituates for suicide purposes. Reprehensible? Yes. But nobody is forcing you to write bad porn, either.

Pharmacists are human beings. If they won't dispense emergency contraception, there should be a sign on the door stating such, or they should pass it on to a partner, or the competition. But they are people, and they do get to make a moral choice.

Re: As a Pharmacist

[lagilman]

But nobody is forcing you to write bad porn, either.

If I take on a job that says "I will write bad porn," then I have to write bad porn. Or I lose the job.

If your job description is "fills prescriptions," then your job is to fill prescriptions. If you personally cannot do it, then fine, stand aside and let someone else in your store do it. But what if there's nobody else in the store qualified to do so? You're enforcing your moral stand on another person, who may not have another option to turn to. Is that moral?

Re: As a Pharmacist

[lagilman]

(not meaning to attack your choice, btw. Sorry if it came across that way. But I don't think your example holds any water)

Re: As a Pharmacist

[kaitiana.livejournal.com]

Also not intending to attack you, but I work in the legal profession. I see a lot of stuff that I don't MORALLY agree with, but that is LEGALLY allowed. I can't just pick and choose what I agree with morally. I have to do my job. If I can't do my job because of my morals, nobody's going to force me to. But if I lose my job because of it, that's the choice I have to make. And it's a choice I would have to live with. I don't think any other career should be different. If you choose not to fulfil an obligation of your job for your own moral reasons (and I'm not talking about anything that is illegal or would lead to the imminent harm or death of someone), then that IS a choice you are making (you in the general sense) and you should be prepared to lose your job over it.

Re: As a Pharmacist

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

The reason it doesn't hold water is because he used the example of refusing to fill a prescription on medical grounds (drug interaction and undiagnosed addiction), rather than on moral ones. (Of course, he won't see a reply you made to yourself, so it's sort of academic.)

Re: As a Pharmacist

[cogitationitis.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree that one should be prepared to put one's career on the line when making such decisions. Is it worth my career to save someone's life? I think so. Is it worth my career to save a potential/unborn life? No, but I'm Jewish; a religious Catholic may disagree.

[cassie-o.livejournal.com]

CVS is so much easier to get this filled than some other places. My one trip to Target to get something filled was not fun at all.

Re: As a Pharmacist

[badgermirlacca.livejournal.com]

I don't want to be forced to fill every legal prescription that flies across the bench.

In other words, you want to pick and chose what parts of your job you want to do, and ignore the parts you don't like. I wish I had that luxury.

Police do not get to choose which warrants they get to serve, or which individuals they get to arrest. Firemen do not get to choose to put out only fires in buildings that they like. Secretaries type all the documents they're handed, not just the documents they like.

If there are horrible drug interactions, you are obligated to call the prescribing doctor and ask if the prescription is correct, are you not? That is an appropriate action to take. That is not the same thing as refusing to fill a legal prescription for contraceptives.

As for condoms--those are sold over the counter, and who would bother asking a pharmacist for them to begin with?

And as for a "lethal dose of barbituates for suicide purposes"--I would really like to see a prescription that is written that way. Really.

Pharmacists can make moral choices, all right. But in the workplace, they are expected to act like professionals. And professionals do not second-guess their customers, and they do not leap to unwarranted conclusions. And if they are hired to fill legal prescriptions under a doctor's orders, then they should fill those prescriptions.

[merlinpole.livejournal.com]

Does Target sell cigarettes? Does it allow cashiers to refuse to ring up sales for cigarettes who find cigarettes to be instruments of disease and death?

[vyazka.livejournal.com]

You win.