The Deacon's Bench
From USA TODAY:
A Michigan woman is demanding that Meijer discipline a pharmacist and implement a company-wide policy for how pharmacists should handle religious and moral objections to dispensing medication after she was denied a prescription to help complete a miscarriage.
Rachel Peterson, 35, of Ionia alleges a pharmacist at a Meijer store in Petoskey refused to fill her prescription for a drug called misoprostol (brand name Cytotec) in July because of his personal religious views. She says he also refused to transfer the prescription to another pharmacy.
Misoprostol can be used to prevent stomach ulcers and also can be used to induce labor during pregnancy, to aid in the completion of a miscarriage and in the treatment of postpartum hemorrhage. When combined with another drug, it can be used to induce an abortion.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan sent a letter Tuesday on Peterson’s behalf to Meijer, saying what the pharmacist did was discriminatory and violated the state’s public accommodation laws.
Some background: according to Peterson, she learned in June that she was nine-weeks pregnant with twins, but complications developed and one of the twins died. A few weeks later, a blood clot developed and the surviving fetus died. That was when she went to the pharmacy to seek to bring the pregnancy to a conclusion.
For women who don’t completely miscarry, there is a risk of developing an infection called sepsis, which is dangerous and can be fatal.
Peterson and her husband were in Petoskey when she tried to have the prescription filled.
Just as they were about to go to the store to pick up the medicine, Peterson said she got a call from the Meijer pharmacist.
“He said that he was a good Catholic male and that he couldn’t in good conscience give me this medication because it’s used for abortions, and he could not prescribe that,” Peterson said.
“When I divulged to him that the fetus was no longer viable, and that … I needed to progress the situation further, he said, ‘Well, that’s your word and I don’t believe you,’ and he refused to fill it.”
Peterson said she asked him whether he could transfer it to another local pharmacy and he refused.
Read the rest.
This is problematic on a lot of levels, but concerned Catholics should know: it’s not an abortion if the fetus is already dead.
I’d be curious to hear the pharmacist’s side of the story and hear him try to defend this decision. Because right now, on the face of it, he’s not advancing the pro-life cause at all. In fact, he’s doing serious damage.
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