Woman refused pregnancy termination drugs at Walgreens pharmacy that were prescribed

[Player Twelve]

http://www.newsweek.com/woman-refuse...harmacy-992994

An Arizona woman was left “in tears" and "humiliated” after a staff member at pharmacy chain Walgreens refused to give her prescription medication to terminate a pregnancy her doctor had said would end in miscarriage.

Nicole Arteaga's doctor told her Tuesday that the two-month old baby had developmental abnormalities, and was given the choice of terminating the pregnancy through surgery or prescription medication. She chose the latter option.

However when she visited a local branch of Walgreens, she was asked by the pharmacist whether she was pregnant. When she replied that she was, he refused to sell her the medication.

"He has no idea what its like to want nothing more than to carry a child to full term and be unable to do so. If you have gone thru [sic] a miscarriage you know the pain and emotional roller it can be," Arteaga, a school teacher from Peoria, Arizona, wrote in a Facebook post on Friday. "I left Walgreens in tears, ashamed and feeling humiliated by a man who knows nothing of my struggles but feels it is his right to deny medication prescribed to me by my doctor."

"I stood at the mercy of this pharmacist explaining my situation in front of my 7-year-old and five customers standing behind, only to be denied because of his ethical beliefs," she wrote on Facebook and Instagram.

"I get it, we all have our beliefs. But what he failed to understand is, this isn't the situation I had hoped for - this isn't something I wanted. This is something I have zero control over. He has no idea what it's like to want nothing more than to carry a child to full term and be unable to do so."

In a statement to media outlets, Walgreens confirmed that company policy allowed its pharmacists to "step away from filling a prescription for which they have a moral objection".

In that situation, staff are required to refer the prescription to another pharmacist or manager "to meet the patient's needs in a timely manner.”

It said it had "reached out to the patient and apologised for how the situation was handled".

Arteaga told the BBC that did not happen when she visited the store, as the pharmacist "could have just passed me on to the lady that was standing next to him" - which she says did not happen.

She said she was able to collect her prescription when it was sent to another Walgreens branch, after seeking her doctors help to ensure staff there would give to to her.

Kelli Garcia, director of reproductive justice initiatives and senior counsel at the National Women's Law Center, told BuzzFeed News that Arizona is one of six U.S. states where pharmacists can refuse to serve customers on religious or ethical grounds.

[Surfd]

I now have the urge to study medicine. So that I can become a pharmacist. So that I can get a job near where that guy works. So that at some point in the future, when he is in need of a prescription drug that may save his life, I can hope that he will come to me to get that prescription filled, so that I can deny him his prescription. Because my religion does not believe that assholes should be allowed to continue to use up valuable oxygen.

[pathora44]

The fucker should be fired. These assholes who use their positions to control others to force them to act how they want. This pisses me off as much as that fucking cunt in Kentucky who refused to give marriage licenses to homosexual couples.

[Torto]

I'm going to assume this wasn't the only pharmacy in the vicinity and she could easily walk down the street to another pharmacy. I mean, it's not like you are gay and you have to buy gay wedding cakes from Christian bakeries.

[kail]

The fucker should be fired. These assholes who use their positions to control others to force them to act how they want. This pisses me off as much as that fucking cunt in Kentucky who refused to give marriage licenses to homosexual couples.

Difference here is that she works for the government, this pharmacist in question doesn't. Wallgreens has every right to fire him but have the policy where their employees can deny based on their morality. I know where I won't be getting my prescriptions from.

[pathora44]

I'm going to assume this wasn't the only pharmacy in the vicinity and she could easily walk down the street to another pharmacy. I mean, it's not like you are gay and you have to buy gay wedding cakes from Christian bakeries.

Ya nothing like going to your local Walgreens and having to plead with the Pharmacist to sell you the LEGALLY PRESCRIBED DRUGS FROM HER DOCTOR to terminate a fetus that was going to end in miscarriage. All in front of your five year old child and five random strangers. FUCK off you piece of shit. The amount of emotional stress that woman is going through compounded by some piece of shit using what power he has to control this woman and you say she should go find another pharmacy. How about that piece of shit pharmacist do his job or quit. His ass should go work for a church. Abortion is legal in this country and guys like this should quit professions that are around things they don't like.

[Deleted]

the two-month old baby

A "two-month old baby" would be a baby that was born two months ago. A fetus at two months is not a baby.

[Player Twelve]

I would do the same thing if I were him. I would want to help save lives, not assist in the murder of innocent. That said, I wouldn't work at a place that I would run into this situation either.

Nobody is being murdered.

[endersblade]

The fucker should be fired. These assholes who use their positions to control others to force them to act how they want. This pisses me off as much as that fucking cunt in Kentucky who refused to give marriage licenses to homosexual couples.

This. That mother fucker had absolutely zero goddamn right to do that.

[pathora44]

Difference here is that she works for the government, this pharmacist in question doesn't. Wallgreens has every right to fire him but have the policy where their employees can deny based on their morality. I know where I won't be getting my prescriptions from.

Ya I know but it is just crap like this pisses me off. Stop trying to control the lives of others with your religion. I believe in God but I can't stand most churches because of crap like this. People who use their religion to control others. I can promise you that piece of shit Pharmacist bitches and complains about people on welfare and how much we waste taxes on "lazy" people. Yet wants to force women to give birth to unwanted children or like this woman children who were never going to be born anyway.

[Player Twelve]

Are you fine with killing the mentally challenged or deformed because "they're not real people"?

Lmao, how are those anything similar to abortion?

[Torto]

Ya nothing like going to your local Walgreens and having to plead with the Pharmacist to sell you the LEGALLY PRESCRIBED DRUGS FROM HER DOCTOR to terminate a fetus that was going to end in miscarriage. All in front of your five year old child and five random strangers. FUCK off you piece of shit. The amount of emotional stress that woman is going through compounded by some piece of shit using what power he has to control this woman and you say she should go find another pharmacy. How about that piece of shit pharmacist do his job or quit. His ass should go work for a church. Abortion is legal in this country and guys like this should quit professions that are around things they don't like.

Yes, so explain to me again why she just didn't go to another pharmacy? If some idiot wanted to lecture me over my prescription I'd take it elsewhere.

[Deleted]

Why didn't she ask to see the manager? Why didn't she come back later, after the current pharmacist's shift was over?

Come on, it's just a bait story.

[pathora44]

Yes, so explain to me again why she just didn't go to another pharmacy? If some idiot wanted to lecture me over my prescription I'd take it elsewhere.

The better answer is to do your job or quit. But no instead assholes can use their religion to berate, humiliate, and control others. People like you defend them not the emotionally distraught mother with a fetus that is never going to be born anyway trying to explain this to some asshole on his perfect ivory tower with her FIVE YEAR OLD SON THERE and five other strangers behind her. So again I say promptly fuck off with you hand waving this asshole abusing his position to berate, humiliate, and control this woman.

[Deleted]

Why didn't she ask to see the manager? Why didn't she come back later, after the current pharmacist's shift was over?

Come on, it's just a bait story.

[Laerrus]

As I understand it, life begins at conception.

However...

The right to choose for everyone is something that I value even more. That incident was in violation of her personal freedoms and that pharmacist should be fired as well as have his license revoked.

[Player Twelve]

As I understand it, life begins at conception.

As I understand it, life begins at conception but not all life is worthy of protection.

[Deleted]

As I understand it, life begins at conception.

However...

The right to choose for everyone is something that I value even more. That incident was in violation of her personal freedoms and that pharmacist should be fired as well as have his license revoked.

That's pretty callous of you. Sperm and egg cells are also alive. How are they worth less apart, than they do as one cell?

[d00mGuArD]

The fucker should be fired. These assholes who use their positions to control others to force them to act how they want. This pisses me off as much as that fucking cunt in Kentucky who refused to give marriage licenses to homosexual couples.

This. That mother fucker had absolutely zero goddamn right to do that.

As much as that guy was douche, he should most definitely NOT get fired since THE LAW of the state allows him to deny drugs on ethical grounds.
We should instead focus on changing the outdated law!

On the article says Arizona is one of six states that pharmacists have the right to deny giving the drugs. That should be what needs change

I don't think the store can/should do anything about it, if the law allows the employees to deny

[kail]

I highly expected this to become another abortion debate, but this isn't really the issue. It could have been any other prescription and Wallgreens is saying that pharmacists can deny their customers medication for moral reasons.