Let's Hear it for Illinois

[rolanni]

Illinois governor: No delays in birth control prescriptions

Friday, April 1, 2005 Posted: 7:29 PM EST (0029 GMT)

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Gov. Rod Blagojevich approved an emergency rule Friday requiring pharmacies to fill birth control prescriptions quickly after a Chicago pharmacist refused to fill an order because of moral opposition to the drug.

The emergency rule takes effect immediately for 150 days while the administration seeks a permanent rule.

"Our regulation says that if a woman goes to a pharmacy with a prescription for birth control, the pharmacy or the pharmacist is not allowed to discriminate or to choose who he sells it to," Blagojevich said. "No delays. No hassles. No lectures."

Under the new rule, if a pharmacist does not fill the prescription because of a moral objection, another pharmacist must be available to fill it without delay.

The rest of the story

Comments

Re: Hooray and...

[indiw.livejournal.com]

If the issue is for overuse of a narcotic, I think most pharamcists tell the doc (so it doesn't get prescribed *again*) and the same for the allergies -- but if the doc thinks the medicine is justified; if the risk for an allergic reaction negligible, then the pharmacist should fill it -- it's on the doc's head. (From what I can tell, if it's the pharamacist not filling the medicine, the doc has to find out, one way or the other. If it's the patient not picking up the med, of course that's a whole other story).

Even seemingly minor changes -- the doc prescribing some odd number of pills that doesn't seem right to the pharamacist, the pharmacist generally sends/calls the doc for clarification.

The bit about the birth control pills doesn't seem to be a question of patient safety, which the other examples cited are, but of someone imposing their moral beliefs on another.