Nearly one year after controversy erupted in Texas when a pharmacist refused on religious grounds to dispense emergency contraception to a woman who was raped, the issue of pharmacists refusing to dispense drugs because of their beliefs has spread. Last July, Mississippi passed a law that allowed health care providers - including pharmacists - to refuse to do medical procedures they objected. South Dakota and Arkansas already have legislation that allows pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions they morally object to, and 10 states considered similar legislature last year.
Add Ohio to the list. Ohio Rep. Keith Faber, R-Celina, recently introduced a bill to the Ohio House similar to Mississippi's, that would give health care providers the right to refuse to perform procedures or distribute medicine that "will or may result in abortion or termination of life" and protect them from civil liability, discipline or other punishment for refusing.
Although this law includes doctors and nurses, Gary Dougherty, the executive director of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Ohio, said it was mainly aimed towards pharmacists, namely those who don't want to dispense prescriptions for birth control and emergency contraception, according to an article appearing Tuesday in The Lantern.
Faber said in a March 29, 2004 Port Clinton News Herald article the morning-after pill can cause abortions, and that pharmacists who don't know their customer's situation shouldn't be forced to do something that makes them uncomfortable.
Faber's law, however, flies in the face of everything a pharmacist believes and swears to do when they become a pharmacist. The pharmacist's oath states that the "welfare of humanity and relief of human suffering" is the primary concern of a pharmacist, and according to a professor of pharmacy practice and administration, Robert A. Buerki, pharmacists must place their patient's well-being at the center of their professional practice.
In addition, the way the bill is worded is so vague that, according to Dougherty, it could be used to withhold chemotherapy from a pregnant cancer patient because the chemotherapy could potentially cause the woman to have an unplanned abortion.
A pharmacist's ultimate moral responsibility, more than any religious belief that they might hold, when prescribing a drug should be to protect not just their patients' physical health, but mental health as well. Whether it's withholding life-saving treatment because it might harm an unborn child or stealing a rape victim's peace of mind that they won't give birth to their rapist's child, the right of refusal has the potential to negatively affect the health of many women.
Any pharmacy student who feels they can't morally justify prescribing birth control or the morning-after pill should seriously reconsider their choice of career field. This bill should not pass in any form, vaguely or specifically worded.
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