Recently, the Washington State Board of Pharmacy ruled that pharmacists who practice in the Evergreen State can refuse to fill a woman's prescription for Plan B (the morning after pill) if it doesn't jive with their religious beliefs.
Some people see this as a bad thing, but in my effort to turn that frown upside down, I will don my glittery wings, play the Happiness Fairy, and point out all of the good that can come from projecting your own views, no matter how myopic, onto others. Just think of all the changes we could see in this state if we uphold the standards set by the Board of Pharmacy for other types of jobs.
“Not so quick, Fat Ass!” you can scream from behind the counter of your fast food establishment employer. The 400 lb. guy wearing the ‘No Fat Chicks’ t-shirt may want to clog his arteries and blow his cholesterol to the moon with your greasy fare, but you don’t want to violate the Ten Commandments by letting him Double Whopper with Cheese himself to death, so using the standards set by the Board of Pharmacy, you can refuse to sell the double bacon cheeseburger with extra mayo to anyone over 250 lbs.
With a divorce rate nearing 50% in the U.S., you can be on the front lines while working the front desk. Your posh or sleazy hotel, depending on how south of Seattle you happen to work, welcomes people of all backgrounds, but for any couples who want to enjoy the thinness of your walls and the schmutziness of your ugly print bedspread, they will need to produce a marriage license for your approval. If some fuck around tom and his slut du jour think they are going to get in a one-nighter, then as a minimum wage worker who upholds the church's ban on adultery, you will have the opportunity to put a kibosh on their evening of ecstasy. Sure, they may be two people who have been together for years, traveled for miles and just want to sleep, but they are beholden to your rules if you apply the reasoning of the Board of Pharmacy.
You’re not just that chick working at Macy’s anymore! You are now in a position to tell women what they can and can't wear. Since you are a steward of the modesty standards imposed on women by more radical religious factions, then despite your employment status as part-timer in the Juniors department, you have the ability to deny the sale of a slightly low-cut blouse to a busy lady shopping in the spare few minutes of her lunch break. We can't have Washington women dressing like whores, and with the Board of Pharmacy's blessing, more righteous and judgmental women can show their slutty sisters the light.
See how ridiculous it is when you apply the same standards in similar situations! In a country that boasts the separation of church and state, no woman should ever have to be sent packing to G-d knows how many pharmacies to fill a prescription for medication given to her after consulting with an educated medical doctor.
I also find it ironic that a Board of Pharmacy would object to access to Plan B, yet was fine with letting shit drugs like Vioxx and Celebrex kill people off in droves. They have also been leery of pulling Viagra off the market despite increasing evidence that it causes heart problems and, in extreme cases, blindness. Women can’t rescue themselves from a potential unwanted pregnancy, but old guys can still get their dicks hard, and the members of the Board of Pharmacy can look at themselves in the mirror every morning?
Why is this issue of letting women make their own choices in life of any concern to a so-called "Christian" pharmacist when the bigger issue they should be getting behind is more affordable prescription pricing for the elderly. When my grandmother is worried about getting arrested for purchasing her prescriptions from Canada in order to make her retirement pension stretch, yet some bible-banger can get legal right to discriminate then something is really fucked up with the system. I moved to Washington State from Idaho, because I wanted to reside in an area where the majority of the population were progressive thinkers. This action is extremely disappointing, and makes me wonder if we are losing our wonderful Blue State status. Regime change anyone?
11 comments:
But Pharmacists are intelligent? Surely they know that the chances of a god actually existing are less than zero.
Also don't they make money and therfore dont give a shit what crap you take.
Its just Bush trying to appeal to his neo-con voters again. It will be fine.
Pharmacists can also refuse to dispense birth control (not only plan B). If you ever get the chance to hear Dr. Susan Wood speak (she resigned from the FDA over the Plan B debacle) you should. I've seen her twice and I still come away angry, wondering how this is allowed to happen in our country.
Does this mean you can shoot Jehovah's Witnesses for trespassing on your property? If so then every cloud has a sliver lining.
Much more of this n Trust me Tony n Cherie'll be settlin' over there once we've kicked 'em out.
4D - No Tony & his Mrs. can't come over here, we've got way, way too many assholes of our own to deal with. In fact, I think our fanatical asshole quota is maxed out, so you'll have to keep them there, or better yet, send them to Iraq, I hear they're short a few people.
Nicole - Plan B doesn't involve taking the life of a child, because it is not RU-486. RU-486 causes the chemical abortion of an already fertilized egg, whereas Plan B prevents the release of the egg from the ovary and the initial fertilization. Apponents of choice have done a great job of mindfucking the public into believing that Plan B is the pill form of abortion, but that is simply not the case.
I am being quite harsh on pharmacists, because as professionals who are supposed to know what drugs do what, they should know that Plan B is simply nothing more than a very powerful, one-shot load of birth control similar to taking a week's worth of birth control pills at once.
Plan B has absolutely nothing to do with abortion, and cannot cause the termination of a fertilized egg that has attached to the uterus. Therefore, any pharmacist who refuses to dispense Plan B is simply using their personal frame of morality to discriminate against women.
Let's face it, after a lifetime of watching this pro-life/pro-choice shit, the one thing I've figured out is that the arguement isn't about unborn children, it's about keeping women in a second class status limbo in this country. If those on the "pro-life" side really cared about women and children, then they would refuse to support politicians who constantly make cuts in child assistance programs and education resources.
It's far easier to get everyone rallied up with buzz words and one-line phrases like "Plan B is the abortion pill" than get into the reality and implications.
Brian - interesting observation, and to answer your question about why I think it's important to tell everyone that I'm Jewish, it's part of who I am. I tell everyone that I'm a mother, a wife, and a punk who has to work a straight job and function in a world that I'm not comfortable in. I go on and on about living in the 'burbs, because it shapes my opinions about culture and the world I live in. A person's identity is not a simple thing, it's made up of a cluster of experiences, past and present. If I wasn't a Jew, then I wouldn't be who I am, if I wasn't a punk, then I wouldn't be who I am. I tell people I'm a Jew, because I have no reason not to give everyone the whole story. The whole reason I started this blog project was due to the fact that I had what appeared to be the "perfect" life, but I wasn't happy (read "How the Hell Did I Get Here" in the June 2005 archive). The only way to figure out why something exists is to lay everything out on the table and go from there.
As for your take on Jewish history, it's a little off. Jews have the status of being the "Chosen People", but it hasn't exactly been a blessing in many respects. Everyone in the world has tried to kill us at one point in time, we have been the victims of generations and generations of discrimination and genocide, and people still have a tremendous amount of misgivings about Jews even today. The status of "Chosen People" was not something drummed up by Jewish elders of long ago, it was bestowed on the Jewish people by G-d as written in the Torah. Jews are "The People of the Book", because we follow the teachings of the Torah.
As a people, we don't see ourselves as being better or worse than anyone else, instead, because we are Jews, we have more obligations than non-Jews, simple as that.
As for me, I am who I am, and I have no reason to deny or hide anything. I'm proud of who I am and where I've been, even if the world looks down on it.
iiskmqhvPreaching to the choir, sister...I posted on this a few days ago...but wasn't as cheerful as you.
Freedomgirl - I like your post about this subject. When shit like this happens, I have to sit on it for a couple of days to avoid sounding like a raving lunatic. My anger has a 48 hour gestational period, then after that I can think clearly. On Friday, when the news broke about this decision all I could do was spew obscenities and refer to the Board of Pharmacy as cocksuckers. 48 hours later, I could verbalize something more effective. I do like your reference to them as "Pill Nazis", it's so perfect.
Hi Im steve the infidel.
I am so happy to have found your blog!!! I too, considered writing about my feelings on this topic after hearing it for the first time today (I'm a little behind on the news). I was so extremely irritated and full of rage as well. I yapped at my Husband ALL day long about it. I didn't think it made any sense and I still don't.
Does this mean that Pharmacists who don't like the idea of pot aren't going to dispense medicinal mary jane to cancer patients next? What kind of precident are we setting here? It scares me to death.
I love the Burger King analogy. All of your points are valid and have everything to do with the issue at hand. Anyone who thinks otherwise is brainwashed.
Thank you for saying EXACTLY what I was feeling. Looking forward to more reading!
I think all people who follow religion are nuts, but the idea that there is a "separation of church and state," in this country is just plain wrong.
Those words do not appear anywhere in the constitution. The constitution simply states the government will not establish a religion. Big difference.
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