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April 14, 2005

Politics, Religion and Medical Ethics

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitanovetoed a bill which would have allowed pharmacists to refuse to provide abortion-related medications if doing so conflicts with their moral or religious beliefs.

A number of pharmacists have refused to fill prescriptions for religious/moral reasons over the last few years in Texas, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Illinois and elsewhere.

The former pharmacist in the Wisconsin case cited not wanting to commit a sin as his reason for refusing to fill the valid prescription.

Napolitano isn't the first Governor to act against this troubling trend, either. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich issued an emergency rule last week requiring pharmacies to accept and fill prescriptions for contraceptives "without delay" and established a toll-free number for state residents to report refusals. And that has the wingnuts frothing at the mouth.

GOPUSA carries this alleged news report by CNSNews.com, a wingnut front organization whose president and founder is none other than L. Brent Bozell III, founder and president of the right-wing Media Research Center.

The CNS article touts how Illinois Gov. Blagojevich was on shaky legal ground when he issued the emergency rule. Their source for that opinion? The ACLJ which the article describes as "a conservative civil liberties group." Which isn't completely dishonest. But the whole truth would have been to say that the ACLJ is a Religious Right organization closely linked to the Trinity Broadcasting Network whse president and founder is the alleged homosexual cheater Paul Crouch.

Now... maybe Blagojevich was on shaky legal ground when he issued the rule. I honestly don't know. What I do know is that any time the line of citation on a news story involves interconnected and partisan sources all on one side of the issue... that I have to take their "opinions" with a pinch of salt, as they say.

Suffice to say that Republicans seemingly favor pharmacists being allowed to refuse to fill prescriptions on religious/moral grounds.

On the face of it this seems to be a pro-life/woman's rights issue. But it really isn't. And that's why we all should be concerned about this.

Consider this story from 2001 of a teenager whose parents refused to get her treated for diabetes because of religious beliefs and she ended up dying. Now imagine you live in the middle of nowhere and the nearest single pharmacist is 100 miles away running a pharmacy/grocery store and he or she has just converted to the General Assembly Church of the First Born, a Christian sect that does not believe in medical treatment but instead relies on faith healing. You've got diabetes. You can't live without insulin. But, the only pharmacist around won't fill the damn prescription because of religious/moral beliefs.

Posted by Kevin at April 14, 2005 03:01 PM