NOW Supports Legislation Protecting Women's Right to Legal, Safe Birth Control

By NOW Staff

June 23, 2005

Urge your senators and representatives to support the Access to Legal Pharmaceuticals Act

NOW joined Senator Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Representatives Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., Debbie Wasserman-Shultz, D-Fla., and Christopher Shays, R-Conn., at a recent press conference where they introduced the Access to Legal Pharmaceuticals Act, or ALPhA (S.809/ H.R. 1652).

This legislative proposal, supported by NOW and women's health groups across the nation, does not require individual pharmacists to dispense any medications for which they have a religious or moral objection. However, it would require there be another pharmacist on the premises who will immediately fill the prescription and that the pharmacy must order the prescribed drug if it is not already in stock. In addition, the pharmacist cannot harass, humiliate, or intentionally breach the confidentiality of the individual attempting to fill the prescription.

"Access to birth control is a women's health issue and a private matter, not to be tampered with by a pharmacist with an agenda," said Maloney. The legislation is a sweeping response to recent reports from women in over a dozen states who have publicly stated that pharmacists refused to fill their birth control or emergency contraception prescriptions due to a "moral conflict of interest." Across the nation, pharmacists are turning away patients with a legal medical prescription for some form of birth control, citing their own personal beliefs to determine what is in the best "interest" of their customers. When a pharmacist denies medical treatment based solely on their personal religious beliefs, it is both cruel and unacceptable.

The American Pharmacists Association established a "conscience clause" in 1998, allowing pharmacists to dispense medication based on personal beliefs — although it specifically states pharmacies have an obligation to ensure the patient's access to their prescribed medication. "Today they might not fill prescriptions for birth control pills, tomorrow it could be painkillers for a cancer patient," Lautenberg announced. "Next year it could be medicine that prolongs the life of a person with AIDS or some other terminal disease . . . If a pharmacist is allowed to pick and choose what prescriptions to fill, everyone's health is put at risk."

Regrettably, some pharmacists are taking it upon themselves to stretch the boundaries of this clause. Not only are they refusing to fill prescriptions for legal and safe hormones or refer the customer to another pharmacist or pharmacy, some pharmacists are refusing to even return a written prescription so the woman can have it filled elsewhere. Consequently, women who live in small towns or rural areas often have no alternative pharmacy available, and rape victims may suffer twofold if they have to continue searching for another pharmacy.

NOW is urging all women's rights supporters to tell their Congress members to support this important legislation protecting a woman's constitutional right to obtain safe and legal birth control. Pharmacists may have a license to dispense drugs but they are not authorized to discriminate against women nor dictate anyone's access to healthcare. As Wasserman-Schultz said, ". . . if men were denied condoms by pharmacies, this issue would have been taken care of already."