Politics: Born By Choice

Someone elses choice, that is.

You may have heard about some pharmacists refusing to fill out birth control perscriptions. If you haven't, take a look. The reason given is that pills or other hormonal methods of birth control can induce an abortion (the egg is fertilized, but not able to implant itself onto the walls of the womb), and those refusing pharmacists are against any chance of that happening.

Problems with this?

1) The pharmacist does not know the madical history of the patient, who had the pill prescribed by their doctor;
2) It is the most reliable method of birth control available;
3) They are sometimes the only pharmacist available in an HMO, or in a rural community.

Welcome to (once again) religious morality being forced on those who don't agree with it.

"On July 25, a U.S. House of Representatives committee held a hearing on whether pharmacies should be allowed to refuse to fill women’s prescriptions. Anti-choice Rep. Steve King (R-IA) told a witness, who had been denied birth control and emergency contraception by her pharmacist, that she had no “right” to her prescriptions - she only believed she did. Anti-choice Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) told a witness whose prescription had also been rejected by a hostile pharmacist, that her “minor inconvenience” – that is, risking an unintended pregnancy – was nothing compared to the “conscience” of a pharmacist."

Didn't these folks learn anything about the unpopularity of forcing themselves into the private lives of citizens? The Schiavo case should have been enough, but apparently not... Then again, I also thought the Republicans were always claiming to be the group most interested in smaller governments and less involvement. Huh.