Editorial from the Ventura County Star
It
is hard to imagine that one could have a legal prescription denied at a
pharmacy. Or that one would have to explain to a pharmacist why a doctor ordered
the prescription, before it could be filled. Yet, that is happening in some
places, primarily to women, who need birth control or emergency contraception.
That is wrong. Fortunately, two bills making their way through the California
Legislature would allow pharmacists to exercise their conscience, while allowing
people to get their prescribed medication, without delay or undue hardship.
Assembly Bill 21, authored by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Sherman Oaks, requires
pharmacists who object to dispensing certain drugs on moral grounds put in
writing the drugs or classes of drugs they will not dispense. It then requires
pharmacies to refer the patient to a different pharmacy that has the drug or
transfer the prescription to another pharmacy and inform the patient.