Is Your Pharmacist Judging You?
The New York Civil Liberties Union has a release out this morning about a complaint the group is filing today on behalf of a health care provider at Planned Parenthood Mohawk Hudson. The NYCLU is charging that a Rite Aid pharmacist who refused to fill a patient’s prescription for refill doses of Emergency Contraception should be disciplined by the New York State Board of Pharmacy.
Interestingly, the pharmacist was, apparently, not motivated by a blanket religious prohibition against dispensing emergency contraception, but by her own personal belief that women should not get more than one dose of emergency contraception.
The case raises the issue of how much latitude workers in medicine and other professions should be given to make decisions according to their own personal standards of right and wrong.
Last week, the Forward reported on an effort to strengthen federal requirements for religious accomodations in the workplace. While a broad swath of the religious community is behind the bill, the ACLU and others argue that it could empower religious conservatives to impose their own morality in medical and public health settings, to the detriment of patients.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
