Prescription for disaster

Pharmacists may get to decide whether they wish to fill prescriptions that have been prescribed to you.

On March 14, the House of Representatives approved Oklahoma House Bill 2884.

This measure “protects pharmacists from being fired... if they refuse to dispense medication if there is a reason to believe the medication would be used to cause an abortion, destroy an unborn child, or to cause the death of any person by means of assisted suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing.”

The bill now will go to the Senate where a committee will vote on it.

Then, if approved, the bill would go to a vote of the Senate. If approved there, it is sent to the governor to be signed into law.

The measure needs to be stopped. The law would allow pharmacists to discriminate without facing repercussions.

Pharmacists should accept they might have to dispense medication against their conscience when they take the job.

The decision to give a medication to a person lies in the hands of that person’s physician alone.

HB 2884 would allow pharmacists to decide to whom they would like to give certain medications.

The bill originated after controversies arose over whether pharmacists should be required to fill prescriptions for the morning-after pill.

Many pro-life advocates feel the prescription pill is equivalent to the abortion pill.

However, the morning-after pill is considered an emergency contraception pill, and is generally progesterone based and prevents a pregnancy. It’s an abortion-prevention drug.

Medication abortion is a combination of pills that must be used in conjunction with each other to end, not prevent, a pregnancy.

The measure going through the Oklahoma Legislature right now could potentially affect not only morning-after pill consumers, but also would allow a pharmacist to decide they don’t feel morally right filling a pain pill prescription based on the assumption the patient may try to commit suicide.

There are numerous scenarios that could play out if this measure becomes law.

Write to your senators and tell them you do not support this measure. Do it for your own rights, and the rights of others.

—Christiana Kostura, Editor