“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, adding, “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'm using the tag "abortion" here to connect this issue with other abortion issues, not to express the idea that the use of the drug in this case would be an abortion (though the article calls it a "medical abortion"). If I understand this correctly, the "undeveloped baby" was already dead and, for her health, needed to be removed from the uterus, not left until her body expelled it. I don't know if the pharmacist understood that, but I do think there should be accommodation for pharmacists to decline to participate in abortions and that empathy for this woman does not support an effort to drive conscientious-objector pharmacists out of work.
Walgreens said on Saturday that it had contacted Ms. Arteaga “and apologized for how the situation was handled,” but suggested that the employee had not run afoul of company policy by refusing to fill the prescription.
“To respect the sincerely held beliefs of our pharmacists while at the same time meeting the needs of our patients, our policy allows pharmacists to step away from filling a prescription for which they have a moral objection,” the company said in a statement....
Ms. Arteaga’s account evoked strong reactions on social media, where some called on Walgreens to fire the pharmacist and others threatened to boycott the company.
“I was shocked,” Ms. Arteaga, 35, said on Sunday. “I couldn’t believe that he would tell me that I wasn’t going to be able to get my prescription.”
She tried to explain her situation but he remained unmoved. “What I have inside of me is an undeveloped baby,” she recalled telling the pharmacist. “I need this to help get it out.”
June 25, 2018
Pharmacist, citing moral objections, declines to fill a prescription for a woman who needed a drug to end a pregnancy that she'd wanted but knew was going to end in a miscarriage.
The NYT tells the story, based on the woman's Facebook post, in "Walgreens Pharmacist Denies a Woman Medication to End Her Unviable Pregnancy":
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98 comments:
Hey! If a restaurateur can refuse service then why can't a pharmacist refuse to fill a prescription? Are there no other drug stores anywhere around?
(N.B., My instincts are to side with the woman and her doctor, but, you know, I didn't make the new rules. Democrats did.)
The pharmacist doesn't know this woman. Why would he believe the explanation of someone trying to get an abortion drug from him? I feel for the woman but completely understand the pharmacist's refusal.
So now this is another thing the whole nation has to have an opinion about, and Walgreens and the woman are going to have to endure endless hours of dehumanizing criticism?
Why does everything have to become a thing?
A conscientious objector pharmacist should fill the prescription anyway.
Otherwise operate an Ethical Pharmacist store of his own, we only stock good medicines.
That is, it's a Walgreen problem. They guy ought to be fired to open his own store.
The headline suggests pretty clearly that the baby is still alive. If she wants the baby, but had a strong fear that it will end in miscarriage (it's not 100% until it actually happens), then her approach does not make sense. But it's her baby and under the law, if she wants to kill it, she has that right.
But her attitude, and that of here fellow travelers on social media speaks to one of the many ugly undersides of liberalism--they do not tolerate opposing viewpoints, they merely humor them so long as it's convenient.
I don't understand ... He would not fill prescription, but was it on hand? He has no objection to be near the pharmaceutical?
rhhardin said...
That is, it's a Walgreen problem. They guy ought to be fired to open his own store.
Company policy allowed him to do exactly what he did. Why does everyone always have to lose a job to make someone else happy? A job loss is such a terrible thing.
rhhardin, as Walgreen's itself points out, the pharmacist was acting within company policy.
When did medicine become balkanized?
What happened to: I went in for a prescription. The pharmacist had a moral objection to giving it it me. The company he works for supports his right to do that. I was unhappy, but I left and went to another pharmacy. I didn't need to turn it into a Big National Deal.
At least she was able to buy snacks.
Whatever happened to: I don't really know this woman's life and story, and I don't really know the pharmacists life and story. I don't really need to involve myself in this situation.
why does it ALWAYS come back to CAKES?????? (bun in the oven :)
Whatever happened to: those people want a wedding cake, I will bake it.
So many conservatives forcing their beliefs on others. And then complaining when people speak up about it.
It seems obvious to me that Walgreen's would have this policy. It's absurd to expect all pharmacists to participate in abortions. Most OBGYNs don't either.
I'm sure, whatever the conflict, it's Trump's fault, and demonstrates the rising tide of fascism in America.
Bake my cake! Abort my baby! Serve my dinner!
Narayanan Subramanian said...
When did medicine become balkanized?
When a majority of its practitioners walked away from First, do no harm.
Medically, something doesn't sound right to me here.
If the fetus is old enough that they know for sure it's non-viable, then it would seem to be that an induced abortion would be something that should be done under a doctor's supervision.
If the fetus/embryo is small enough that they know it's safe for a patient to abort herself a la Plan B, then I'm dubious that they know it's non-viable.
I suspect we're not getting the whole story here. My guess: a genetic test showed a birth defect like Downs, & that's what the woman is calling "non-viable".
I await the opinion on this of someone whose medical degree did not come from a box of Cracker Jacks like mine did.
I call somewhat of a BS flag on this story.
If she is truly carrying an already dead fetus then the doctor would have prescribed a D&C procedure to prevent lingering infection from the dead and decaying corpse of her baby in the event that the abortion drug didn't take care of everything. IF the baby isn't dead then it is an abortion of a living (for now) child.
How can the pharmacists know which is true...if any of it. Maybe she just had wild sex a few months ago and wants to dump the results.
If she can't get the prescription at one pharmacy, then call ahead to another and find out if it is a problem there. Then have the Dr's office change the order.
Plus...adding to the BS factor --------> Facebook is the source of the story.
Filed under: Things I don't need to give an opinion on, but must?
According to the story, the baby was dead. There was no fetal heart beat. Her doctor offered her a surgical abortion or medication (medical abortion). She chose medication. In this case, abortion is probably not the right word since the fetus is already dead and the pregnancy at an end, but that's the word we use.
All she had to do was wait for a non-objecting pharmacist at Walgreen's to prescribe the medicine, which is what happened. The pharmacist transferred it to a different Walgreen's where the pharmacist filled it, but by that time she was so angry that she wouldn't go pick it up until she had her doctor call to make sure she could get it with no problem at the other Walgreen's. Then, it just escalated to an opportunity for advocacy.
The pharmicist is already unviable. Walmart just needs help expelling him.
You what's weird? This is the same guy who filled Roseanne's ambien prescription.
Woman slightly inconvenienced, international news details at 11:00!
"I don't have control over my body and I don’t have control of the situation," Arteaga said.
That's always the situation with prescriptions and the medical system. The say it's for her own good.
"Despite two other pharmacists working behind the counter, she said, he told her she could come back the next night or go to another pharmacy to see if they would fill the prescription."
She could have spent 10 or 15 minutes traveling through the wilderness on her run-down mule to visit one of the other 12, at least, Walgreens in Peoria.
Walgreen's pharmacy embarrassed me no end in the same manner. I moved to a privately run pharmacy and have become good friends with the pharmacist. A pox on Walgreens.
The pharmacist's job is to put pills into bottles not enforce his anti-abortifacient beliefs. Why they need a degree for that I'll never know. This is America not Saudi Arabia, so his fingers and wiener should not be chopped off. But he should be forced to pay spousal and child's support for the rest of their lives. Since a fool like that believes in a soul and afterlife, he should be forced to compensate that poor woman forever. He agreed to marry her by forcing her to have his dead baby. He's a rapist actually. She would be justified in shooting her assailant in self-defense. He should also be forced to bake or buy her a birthday cake every year on his baby's birthday, or anniversary of its death. Let's not forget the baby's new shoes.
http://www.metrolyrics.com/baby-needs-a-new-pair-of-shoes-lyrics-ely-joe.html
"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.”
So ashamed and humiliated that I had to post it on Facebook. WTF is the matter with our country???
Is there any source for this story other than this woman?
Not all miscarriages are removed by a D&C. Some women opt to wait until the body naturally expels the dead baby and uterine contents. Sometimes the abortion drug is given to help the body expel the dead baby and uterine contents. In this woman’s case she said the baby stopped development and was going to miscarry.
“Each week I went for my ultra sound praying to see progress and hear the sound of little heartbeat. Unfortunately, development isn't happening and my body is slowly getting ready to miscarry. My (doctor) gave me two choices D & C or a prescription that will help induce bleeding and discharge in the comfort of my home," she wrote.”
Whatever happened to: those people want a wedding cake, I will bake it.
So many conservatives forcing their beliefs on others. And then complaining when people speak up about it.
Whenever two people have opposing beliefs and one confrontation, someone's beliefs are going to be forced on the other. The question is how do you resolve the situation and who resolves it. Is someone going to be compelled by or government to go against his own beliefs? If so, is there a compelling reason for it? Does the whole nation have to agree with a person's reasons for their beliefs?
At what point is it ok- desirable- for people to be compelled to act against their own beliefs?
dc;du?
Where's the man in this story.
Shouldn't pharmacists require the sperm owners permission. I mean he fornicated with her, and should require a unanimous vote to poison and kill the fertilized egg.
When did medicine become balkanized?
When a majority of its practitioners walked away from First, do no harm.
The Hippocratic Oath is no longer part of graduation at most medical schools these days.
"Cutting for Stone" is a bit obsolete but nobody dos that anyway.
Fetuses that die in utero are sterile and sometimes calcify. They don't get infected unless the membranes rupture.
There is a Walgreens on half the street corners.
Etienne said...
Where's the man in this story.
Who?
According to Althouse, the father is a compliant subordinate with no rights, so there's no reason to mention him or care what he thinks.
So how can it be a moral decision to refuse a drug that helps expel a baby that has already died? He would not have been participating in the baby’s death.
———————————
“A mother in Arizona is speaking out against a Walgreens pharmacist who she says refused to give her prescription medication for her miscarriage.
Nicole Arteaga, 35, said her doctor prescribed her a drug to help miscarry her dead fetus after learning the unborn child no longer had a heartbeat.
She says the pharmacist refused her the medication because it violated his personal beliefs.
"He was not compassionate at all," she said. "It was pretty much like, no, I'm not giving it to you."
http://abc7ny.com/health/woman-says-pharmacist-denied-her-miscarriage-prescription/3650177/
This must the latest planned Outrage Of The Week planned by the DNC and its Committee To Take Down Trump.
Inga, pharmacists aren’t privy to the reason behind a prescription.
There was only one pharmacist in her town?
"He was not compassionate at all," she said. "It was pretty much like, no, I'm not giving it to you."
Sometimes when you say “no” that’s all the other person hears. Anything after that is background noise to them, especially if they are upset. He may not have been the best communicator, but I’d like to know what he actually said. I suspect he offered to transfer it to another pharmacist since that’s what happened. Better to start out with a positive, “I will transfer this to the Walgreens at such and such a place because I can’t fill it.”
“Inga, pharmacists aren’t privy to the reason behind a prescription.”
Yes, I know. However it’s pretty rough for a woman carrying a dead baby having to explain her situation at the counter to a pharmacist with people in line behind her and her 7 year old daughter with her. Should all women now have to explain the rational for a drug that their doctor orders to the pharmacist?
“Last night I went to pick up my medication at my local Walgreens only to be denied the prescription I need. 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 in a Facebook post Friday.
“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.”
Arteaga described her miscarriage as an emotional roller coaster and said the pharmacist had “no idea what it’s like to want nothing more than to carry a child to full term and be unable to do so.”
“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,” she said.
Arteaga said she would not usually share such a story but did not want other women to have the same experience at a time “when you are vulnerable and already suffering.”
https://wgno.com/2018/06/25/woman-slams-walgreens-when-a-pharmacist-refuses-to-fill-her-prescription-to-induce-a-miscarriage/
"Sydney said...
Inga, pharmacists aren’t privy to the reason behind a prescription."
Inga thinks she can read minds and therefore everyone else can. Example: She is 100% Roe v Wade and pro-choice, but doesn't think gender based abortions should be allowed.
He should have just said they were out of that drug.
AJ Lynch: This must the latest planned Outrage Of The Week planned by the DNC and its Committee To Take Down Trump.
My first thought was some competitor like CVS Pharmacy.
This reminds me of the "outrage" Facebook rant that FB friends keep sharing over the years, about a military veteran that was denied a military discount at Home Depot by some young punk assistant manager. According to the posts, the exact same scenario played out at numerous Home Depots across the nation. The gist is support our veterans by not shopping at Home Depot. Makes me wonder if someone at Loewe's started it.
I expect my SJW FB friends to be sharing and resharing this for the next 5-10 years.
"Inga said...
“Inga, pharmacists aren’t privy to the reason behind a prescription.”
Yes, I know. However it’s pretty rough for a woman carrying a dead baby having to explain her situation at the counter to a pharmacist with people in line behind her and her 7 year old daughter with her. Should all women now have to explain the rational for a drug that their doctor orders to the pharmacist?"
Our resident dullard should really stick to copy and pasting others thoughts, which would eliminate the risk of posting such moronic false equivalencies.
Inga is showing what happens to a story the press wants to push. Outlet after outlet releases a story, with minor details different, but when you look into them you discover that they all have just one source. And that source is never a disinterested source, but rather a source directly involved with the story.
What happened between that woman & that pharmacist may or may not be how the woman is describing it. In any case, she has handed the media the equivalent of a "press release" & they are running with it.
Of course, the pharmacist & other medical personnel involved are all bound by laws of confidentiality which makes it real convenient for her side of the story.
So, a woman who is carrying a dead baby must convince the “ethical” pharmacist she isn’t getting the drug to abort a live baby.
Got it.
Inga said...
So, a woman who is carrying a dead baby must convince the “ethical” pharmacist she isn’t getting the drug to abort a live baby.
Got it."
Sadly you don't. And you never will.
but I do think there should be accommodation for pharmacists to decline to participate in abortions
Why?
If the pharmacist has rights that need to be protected in dealing with abortion surely the child does too?
Ralph L said...He should have just said they were out of that drug.
Bingo! We have a winner.
Too much drama. Too much hysterics.
So, a woman who is carrying a dead baby must convince the “ethical” pharmacist she isn’t getting the drug to abort a live baby.
No. She doesn’t have to explain at all. He transferred it to another pharmacy for her. All she had to do was go pick it up. We don’t know if he asked her to explain or if she decided to do that on her own so she would not have to go to the other pharmacy.
MayBee said...
"Why does everything have to become a thing?"
It's because with the 24 hour news cycle, the media are starving for stuff to put out there and collect commercial revenues. Social media allows them to reap a harvest of stuff that would never have made the news back in the day when the evening news was the only time allowed. Plus, there seem to be no norms of what is acceptable for pubic consumption anymore, and that too is largely owing to social media.
MayBee said...
rhhardin said...
That is, it's a Walgreen problem. They guy ought to be fired to open his own store.
Company policy allowed him to do exactly what he did. Why does everyone always have to lose a job to make someone else happy? A job loss is such a terrible thing.
The answer is simple. In today's hyper-politicization of everything by the left, anything that upsets any of them must be met with a blood sacrifice. Mere disagreement isn't enough. Cross any of them and they will demand your personal (and perhaps physical) destruction. This isn't going to end well.
“Why does everything have to become a thing?"
Indeed. Sarah Sanders being denied service at a The Red Hen cause much outrage and consternation among you folks, this story rates a “meh”. This woman could’ve been a Trump voter for all you know.
@Inga,
Sarah Sanders being denied service at a The Red Hen cause much outrage and consternation among you folks, this story rates a “meh”.
Because the moral issues involved in serving someone dinner are of equivalent weight to the moral issues in an abortion. Right?
"Pharmacist, citing moral objections, declines to fill a prescription...
No one should have to explain anything to a pharmacist. A pharmacist is a vending machine that happens to be made out of meat. The sooner they are all replaced by robots, the better.
“Because the moral issues involved in serving someone dinner are of equivalent weight to the moral issues in an abortion. Right?”
The baby was dead. The drug would’ve only helped her body expel it sooner. It should not be the burden of the miscarrying woman to convince the pharmacist she isn’t using the drug to kill her baby.
"Inga said...
“Why does everything have to become a thing?"
Indeed. Sarah Sanders being denied service at a The Red Hen cause much outrage and consternation among you folks, this story rates a “meh”. This woman could’ve been a Trump voter for all you know."
Here's another example of our resident dullard going off on her own...and failing badly with another moronic false equivalency.
Makes me wonder if someone at Lowe's started it.
Lowes officially makes you sign up for a MyLowes card online and they verify your service before sending the card. The stores probably still accept a military ID. My Dad now has "Veteran" on his NC driver's license. Home Depot didn't ask for anything on a small purchase.
Because the moral issues involved in serving someone dinner are of equivalent weight to the moral issues in an abortion. Right?
I didn't think abortion had any moral issues on the Left.....
“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.”
Pharmacist, psychiatrist. Hey, they both begin with a "P"!
This is something I have zero control over
Also, her indignation.
As someone who has had 5 miscarriages, this seems fishy. You are told of viability in the Dr. office and I had a procedure there the 2 times it was before 9 weeks. All the other times I required a D&C procedure in the hospital. At no time was the abortion pill an option.
I cannot imagine getting told to go to a pharmacy for the Plan B pill or the abortion pill.
Buy the way, pregnancy number Six was my beautiful miracle daughter who is now 7 years old.
I'm sure a clerk would be fired if they refused to sell beef jerky for ethical reasons. Same rule should apply to "professionals".
Presented prescription. Pharmacist says, No, sorry, got to other store ten minutes away.
Woman goes to other store, fills prescription.
Goes home, makes up entire BS story. Walgreens has video cameras. Let's see the vid.
The woman should apologize to the pharmacist.
Kinds like the racist-cop-assaulted-me stories debunked by body cams
Here's what pisses me off - and the only think that pisses me off -- about this story. It shouldn't be national news. It would not have happened if normal decent people were involved.
The pharmacist should have asked another employee to handle (I have never seen a Walgreens pharmacy staffed by only one person). He should have treated her decently. And if he wouldn't and I was that manager of that Walgreens I would have told her that they would find another pharmacist to fill it and it would be delivered to her house. The customer should have worked for this solution too rather than use it as an opportunity to freak out at Walgreen's and turn this into political fireworks and an opportunity for a pro-choice manifesto and the doxxing of the employee. People acting badly instead of trying to help each other. That is all this story is about.
The pharmacist should have just given her an overdose of some narcotic and be done with her.
Dispense the pill at the drs office.
The republicans were right again. Vending machines. Why is that woman sharing her business anyway.
Pharmacists are basically physicians' relatively dimwitted assistants, the ones who lacked the brains and/or the drive to go to medical school.
Yes, I know. However it’s pretty rough for a woman carrying a dead baby having to explain her situation at the counter to a pharmacist with people in line behind her and her 7 year old daughter with her. Should all women now have to explain the rational for a drug that their doctor orders to the pharmacist?
What makes you think it will be limited to women?
Opioid crisis.
"A pharmacist is a vending machine that happens to be made out of meat. The sooner they are all replaced by robots, the better."
Exactly! They could spend their time better directing customers to the beach toys and Sour Skittles.
Why didn't the pharmacist pour a half-gallon of Drano down Inga's throat?
Or are we talking about some other fantasy?
Unfortunately, there wasn't another pharmacist within a 1000 miles of this store.
There should have been another pharmacist in the store.
Why should a woman having a miscarriage go out of her way for a medication her doctor prescribed for her? The “ethical” objection by the pharmacist was a bogus one, the baby was already dead. He wasn’t contributing to the death of the baby by filling her script. He should be disciplined and recieve additional training.
There is no legal or moral right to force someone to become an accessory to an elective abortion (i.e. wicked solution). That said, if it was Nature's Choice, and the fetus, offspring, baby's remains posed a threat to the mother, then she needed a surgeon, not a pharmacist, or an abortionist with a vacuum.
My guess: a genetic test showed a birth defect like Downs, & that's what the woman is calling "non-viable".
That happened in Iceland. They deemed the life of Down Syndrome men and women unworthy, and with a genetic test target and process them early in their evolution in abortion chambers. A progressive slope.
end a pregnancy
Not even the NYT is so callous to deny the truth. They must hope to frame and sell the story as selective-child, that grants immunity to Planned Parenthood advocates and activists.
The baker did bake the cake. The issue was icing, not cake, endorsement, not service.
These arguments were covered years ago, about the time Walgreens announced that they weren't filling these prescriptions. Now everyone should know. Like not going to Chik-Fil-A on Sunday.
The baby was dead. The drug would’ve only helped her body expel it sooner. It should not be the burden of the miscarrying woman to convince the pharmacist she isn’t using the drug to kill her baby.
I don't think anyone at the pharmacy asked her to do that. I think she felt that she should have gotten exactly her way and was, metaphorically or perhaps literally, stamping her feet and insisting "but I FEEL this way. How can you not accommodate how I FEEL?" which is kind of a hallmark of the 'let me write up a big long post on Facebook and encourage people to share and gin up outrage' crowd.
I feel sorry for the woman's loss, of course, but an awful lot of women suffer miscarriages and are able to handle them with dignity. This is an embarrassing tantrum on the woman's part. All she had to do was go to another pharmacy, which she would have done with zero problem had the pharmacy simply been out of stock on the item. Her issue was not being able to accept that someone disagreed with her and was disinclined to accommodate her foot-stamping.
What appalls me about the attitude of some Althouse commenters here is the assumption that only women would have this problem.
How about all those men also carrying miscarried babies in need of Plan B?
The blatant transphobia is sickening.
Accommodation? The pharmacist can be jailed in Canada for using the wrong pronoun. Ze should count zeself lucky ze isn’t in jail already.
Science cannot predict evolution (a chaotic process). The fetus, offspring, baby is viable until Nature's Choice (i.e. death). The pharmacist was morally, if not legally (under the Twilight Amendment), justified to not become an accessory to the elective abortion of a wholly innocent human life.
Tina848, glad to hear your story has a happy beginning.
a drug to end a pregnancy that she'd wanted but knew was going to end in a miscarriage
The baby was not dead.
The “ethical” objection by the pharmacist was a bogus one, the baby was already dead
He didn't know that for sure. All he had was her "word" on it. The unknown tantrum throwing woman, who was giving other options and refused to take them. Like, go to a different pharmacy or come back later when there is a person here who doesn't object to you (potentially) killing your baby and doesn't mind being a part of your abortion.
The baby could be dead. Could not be dead or like Schroedenger's Cat....dead and alive at the same time (theoretically).
errr given options. Not giving options. Proofreading. A lost art evidently.
The NYT is testing edge cases, presuming that they have journolistic immunity. They are probing the population to determine the level of tolerance for the Pro-Choice cult's selective-child doctrine, in order to progress its effort to normalize the practice.
How about all those men also carrying miscarried babies in need of Plan B?
The blatant transphobia is sickening.
Excellent point. The pregnant trannies probably are slightly more stable mentally than this drama queen.
Blogger is unusually bad today
Alinsky tactics for pressuring Walgreen to stop allowing their pharmacists to follow their conscience to dispense abortion and euthanasia pills. In other words, to prevent Catholic and other religious folk from being able to work as a pharmacist.
Nothing new in this: One of my teachers tried to get me failed in medical school for refusing to help him perform abortions: And that was 50 years ago. What saved me was the Civil rights bill of 1964...but it did send a messaage to my fellow students, who caved in rather than fight. Who wudda thot?
Should a Muslim clerk have to ring up your liquor purchase?
By the way, there's no way I would take my 7-year-old daughter (or son, for that matter) with me when I went to buy an abortion drug. That's just creepy.
FWIW, Pharmacists often know drug interactions better than doctors. Further, sometimes patients don't tell multiple doctors all the medications they are taking. A pharmacist is positioned to raise alarms.
Openidname said...
By the way, there's no way I would take my 7-year-old daughter (or son, for that matter) with me when I went to buy an abortion drug. That's just creepy.
Absolutely! This is not the conversation to have in front of a 7 year old.
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