Earlier this semester, a University of Massachusetts student went to the CVS pharmacy on University Drive, where a pharmacist refused to fill her prescription for birth control pills.

The UMass sophomore, who discussed the issue on the condition that she remain anonymous, had sought to refill her prescription of Aviane, an oral contraceptive, online. But when she arrived at the pharmacy, she said a male pharmacy technician told her he had deleted the request from the computer because, as she claims, “he didn’t want to fill it.”

The student then waited 15 minutes, while another pharmacist at the store filled the prescription for her instead.

Calls to a variety of CVS outlets, local and corporate, got no responses to requests for comment, but a pharmacy technician at the CVS pharmacy located on North Pleasant Street in Amherst, who talked on condition he be identified only as “Robert,” said that state law and CVS company policy both protect the rights of pharmacists to refuse to fill a prescription on moral grounds.

However, CVS policy, Robert said, requires that those who object to filling such prescriptions find either another technician in the store or another store location where the customer can have her prescription filled.

“I’m pro-life and about as far right as you can go,” Robert said, “but I still fill [the prescriptions], because there are other medical reasons requiring the use of birth control and emergency contraceptives.”

Robert said he fills such prescriptions “as a courtesy.”

According to USA Today, pharmacists nationwide are refusing to fill prescriptions for oral contraceptives because doing so violates their moral beliefs.

And the UMass sophomore is not alone in Massachusetts. These kinds of refusals are happening across the state, mostly concerning prescriptions for Emergency Conception.

A steady stream of calls comes to centers at the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, mostly because the organization provides a service called “EC online,” according to Erin Rowland of PPLM. This service allows women to request a prescription for EC through the Internet and have it filled at either a Planned Parenthood pharmacy or a local pharmacy if it is more convenient.

Planned Parenthood personnel hear about such pharmacist refusals when women call, sometimes “in tears,” says Rowland. In other cases, outraged pharmacists will call in anger at being presented with these prescriptions.

Oral contraceptives come under fire as well as EC because of how these drugs work, either before or after conception, Rowland says.

The controversy arises around the question of when life begins, and whether these drugs interfere with the implantation of a fertilized egg. In the rare circumstance that an egg is fertilized while birth control pills are taken, oral contraceptives including EC, which works in the same way, prevent the fertilized egg from implanting in the wall of the uterus. In addition, Rowland says that “about 50 percent” of fertilized eggs don’t implant naturally, when a woman is not taking hormonal contraception.

However, the pro-life Pharmacists for Life Web site, http://www.pfli.org, states “at the precise and unique moment of conception, a woman is pregnant with a new individual. This is an accurate and informed medical description.”

The argument by opponents of these contraceptives is that life starts at conception, and if the fertilized egg is not implanted, it is the equivalent of abortion.

Two years ago, Marlene Fried, a professor who teaches about reproductive rights at Hampshire College, had her class survey Western Massachusetts pharmacies. She said her students called all the pharmacies in the area, asking to fill a prescription for EC, in order to “test the awareness” of the issue on the part of pharmacies. The students found, besides a “very uneven” knowledge of EC, that there was an “amount of judgment” by the pharmacists questioned. Fried said that one student, who wasn’t even pregnant, stopped making the calls because she became so upset.

Rowland said those at Planned Parenthood hope that the issue is mainly the pharmacists’ understanding of this issue. By providing outreach and pharmacist education, they are trying to create more discussion about the birth control pill and EC.

Fried said the Pharmacists for Life group “encourages pharmacists to assert their right of conscience in practice.” That may be okay for an individual, she said, but not for a business created to serve the public.

“By refusing [to dispense birth control pills, pharmacists] are putting their moral judgment on a person,” she said. To her, pro-life groups are politicizing sexuality, morality and religious beliefs.

“These aren’t just a few kooks,” she said, but people who have “back-up in high places,” referring to the Bush Administration.

“This is an issue of women’s autonomy,” added Arlene Avakian, professor and director of the Women’s Studies program at UMass. “Any kind of [religious] fundamentalism is dangerous toward women.”

The issue of access is not so great in the Pioneer Valley, according to Amanda Collings, a health educator at University Health Services, who specializes in women’s health and reproductive issues. Because UHS and its pharmacy make it the goal to provide “quality care for students” in a non-political way, prescriptions will always be filled, and emergency services will always be available. However, access becomes more of an issue when a student returns home, to a town where pharmacies have different policies.

Fried also called the issue one of access. She said this issue was a “big deal” for women who do not live in a city, who cannot easily go to another pharmacy to fill a prescription.

Avakian said that in the larger picture, women are “teetering on the brink” of abortion being inaccessible.

“My hope is for your generation to be outraged, and to take to the streets,” Avakian said.
University Drive pharmacist denies a student birth control

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