Mum refused emergency contraception. Because pharmacist doesn’t agree with it. Grrr.

[Evenquieterlife33]

I cannot get my head around this- if a medication is available for legal sale and use in the U.K no pharmacist should be imposing their personal beliefs on anybody and refusing to sell it to them. Absolute piss take in my opinion. It’s outrageous that this is legal. I have never heard of women being refused emergency contraception because it clashes with the pharmacists personal beliefs until I read this. I am got smacked. I bet I could find a pharmacist who doesn’t like to dispense antibiotics, I can’t see them being able to turn people away. The older I get the more of this shit seems to be visible. It’s either getting worse or I’ve had my eyes shut for a very long time.
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What would happen if this pharamcist were working on a public holiday so there was no other pharmacy to try? Where I live, there's a rota for holidays. I know someone who was refused medication from a pharmacist because they disapproved of their job, and they were disciplined

Dervel this ability to opt out though means women’s access to health care relies on how many alternatives are available. So what if you live in a one pharmacy village? What if the numbers of people who opt out increases to a point where they are in the majority. This should be actively safeguarded against as part of protecting women’s rights to determine their own futures and have agency over their own health. This really is Stone Age backwards thinking I just don’t get how this has been allowed. I can’t think of another medication that is treated in this way. Or group of people discriminated against in this way. I just can’t agree with it because where does it stop?

Well things can go wrong, perhaps in a post Brexit Britain with all these predicted medicine shortages there maybe a legion of women rocking up to their local pharmacy to find their simply aren’t any pills to be had. What then?

Then whoever the nob head is who hasn’t done their job properly is in deep shit.

Also how the hell are you supposed to know the person objecting is actually religious? Is there a list of practicing religious pharmacists who have been checked to be attending church or having been to church recently or whatever qualifies? Or can anyone just say - “you know what? I’m xxxxx religion I don’t agree. Based on zero facts. I’m betting the second.

Look I’m massively on the fence on abortion it’s not an idea I’m entirely comfortable with. I can kind of empathise with both sides, and given that it’s so contentious and complicated an ethical issue I’m firmly of the view that individuals should be free to decide where they land on the issue. I don’t personally believe that the morning after pill should have any stigma or resistance to its sale, BUT I know many don’t agree with me and I am even more uncomfortable enforcing my personal ethics on other people.

If I owned a pharmacy and if I was allowed re: employment law I’d ONLY hire pharmacists who had no objections, but I dunno I might run into trouble of being open to religious discrimination if I didn’t. Then I’d try to resolve it via the rota scenario. What I am uncomfortable with is legally enforcing against an individuals
conscience.

@Evenquiterlife33 in much the same way as a woman should be free to proceed with accessing birth control without having to divulge their reasons for doing so I think the same holds true here. If someone refuses a sale I don’t think their reasons should be put under the microscope to see if their personal ethics pass other people’s criteria.

What happens when a registrar at the office of births marriages and deaths refuses to put a man down as mother, or to fill in a birth certificate with no mother because the mother is a transman?
Do we say "your religion and beliefs shouldn't get in the way of your job" then?

The NHS is supposed to provide emergency contraception. If we have a situation where private pharmacists are the only way of obtaining that medication then we are beholden to those private pharmacists' business practices. Whether that be closing early, refusing to sell X or overcharging for Y.
I have no time for religious people passing judgement in others especially when they are supposed to be working but the issue is that women shouldn't be subjected to their whims because the NHS has all but withdrawn in certain areas. We should not be relying on private pharmacists at all.

But derval

Many medications contain non halal non kosher ingredients tested on animals.

So anything with red colouring or a gelatine casing would he against a religion.

As would condoms they contain spermicide and casein so anyone who had issues with cow products would have an issue then?

Hell many people dont believe in pre marital sex so surely the pill would he an issue just in case ?

So why the MAP? Why the one medication/item that affects women?

Here’s a clicky:

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Given the woman paid for it online and was due to collect it only to be refused I think that’s bang out of order. She should have been told up front, not wasted a trip.

Just in case there is anyone reading this and has a need there are mechanisms to get them for free via the NHS for free:

www.nhs.uk/conditions/contraception/where-can-i-get-emergency-contraception/

I really want to be a pharmacist now, so I can refuse viagra.

Do Jehovah Witness doctors or HCP's perform blood transfusions etc ...

I completely respect and empathise with your point of view I just feel that were it within my gift to set policy on this issue it would be tyrannical and I would prefer to respect individual liberty. I’m all for finding ways to negotiate around areas where this might cause a problem for any individual woman, and I would drive any woman I know however far it took to secure that pill with no questions asked.

We live in a diverse country where people have many different views and we have to find ways to live alongside one another. Again I think Sainsbury’s fucked up here, and if you want to take your quite reasonable outrage into them changing their policy then that’s entirely fair enough.

I think they need a sign up saying "due to personal beliefs, contraception and emergency contraception will not be sold by xxxxxx"

She said ‘You expect that sort of nonsense in America, but not here" ironic because where I live in the USA the morning after pill is just there on the shelves in Wal-Mart, next to he pregnancy tests and condoms. No need to interact with the pharmacist at all. I don't know the implications of that but it certainly should be easier for women to access emergency contraception in the UK, especially, as she said, young girls who are less beaten by life would not be as quick to kick up a fuss and could end up having to face the trauma of abortion or pregnancy/childbirth due to someone's "personal beliefs".

I think they need a sign up saying "due to personal beliefs, contraception and emergency contraception will not be sold by xxxxxx"

And of course to prove they are consistent because if it's a religious belief and not just a misogynistic let's punish women for having sex belief, there should he a sign saying " viagra will not be prescribed unless marriage certificate and wife are shown at time of collection. Fair right?

If you aren't prepared to do your job for moral reasons or otherwise then you need to look for another job that does fit with your morals. It's like a vegetarian getting a job in an abbatoir and then refusing to be involved with killing animals.

OMG. I thought that this was just a U.S. thing and that you folks in the UK were much more rational. Women being turned away for emergency contraception hits the news not infrequently here in the U.S. Hoping that you can get this exception overturned. If you aren't willing to do your job, then don't become a pharmacist!

I personally feel that it a pharmacist won’t prescribe the MAP due to religious beliefs that’s fine. But they shouldn’t cite these as a reason as it can sound very judgemental. All that needs to be said is “I’m not able to prescribe the MAP” and then had the woman a list of close by places that can

SarahTancredi and you can bet your life that the people who roll their eyes and say how ridiculous that sounds are the same people will continue to refuse to serve women on the grounds of "personal belief". Because the idea of dictating the rights and regulations of mens sex lives sounds batshit but society has normalised this craziness where women are concerned. Time to wake up society, is it not?

Sadly this is the result of ‘diversity’ and the Equalities Act. If they cannot do the job properly they should not be doing it

I think that if your beliefs prevent you from doing your job then you shouldn't be doing that job.

"It's like a vegetarian getting a job in an abbatoir and then refusing to be involved with killing animals." Exactly and I'm a veggie!

As for "but equality act" well this is discriminatory against women - who are also protected under the equality act!

Nah - either commit fully to the job or do a different job.

Pharmacists and drs can refuse to offer contraception and abortion services if they object, has always been the case. In theory pharmacists can refuse to stock condoms too. The MAP has a particular issue because conception could have taken place so however annoying it is to go to another pharmacy, they are acting within the law and (in the U.K. perhaps outside of very rural areas) it's easy to get to another pharmacy (I seriously doubt any supermarket pharmacists would refuse it)

I seriously doubt any supermarket pharmacists would refuse it

It was a Lloyds pharmacy inside a Sainsburys supermarket. Let's just get the names out there AGAIN. I could believe it if it was a privately-owned pharmacy, only pharmacy in the village etc etc, but you'd expect that a large supermarket and pharmacy chain would have it covered, even on a sunday. I'm shocked, frankly, that Lloyds and Sainsburys are this poor............

Easy to get to another pharmacist?

Not if you are a very young teen who's had to borrow the bus care out their school fields lunch money to the one chemist in town and needs to be back before anyones suspicious

Or if your controlling husband or partner as "given you permission " to visit family and you have one shot at a nearby chemist that wont cause you grief and you tool too long walking home from your mums house.

How horrid it eoyod he to have one chance to get a drs appointment on the day of a husbands business trip only to be faced with a conscientious objection

This wont so much affect assertive women able to ask to see someone else or be directed elsewhere. But you r are screwed if you are in an.abisuve controlling relationship or traumatised to the point it took everything you had just to get there.

Anything medical, well you do that on the basis of you don't pass judgement, you dont need to like the person or approve, and axe murderer or neuro surgeon everyone is entitled to necessary medical treatment.