So we learn today that
Washington state is the latest to jump on the "Thou Shalt Not Offend the Morals of Fundie Pharmacists" bandwagon.
Pharmacists who object to Plan B want to be able to deny filling a prescription on moral, ethical or religious beliefs.
"Pharmacists have to have a right to exercise their conscience in these morally troubling situations. I believe it's a right we get as being citizens of the United States," says Bellevue pharmacist C.J. Kahler.
Thank God, Governor Christine Gregoire called them on this silliness in a letter to the state's pharmacy board opposing the move, saying, "When an individual goes in, they ought to be allowed to have their prescription filled and a pharmacist should not deny them on personal grounds." She advocates having an alternate pharmacist on hand at the same facility if one dispenser succumbs to a case of the Leviticus vapors (my words, not hers) when presented with the prescription. Otherwise, women in rural towns with access to only one pharmacist will get ... well, screwed.
Nice idea, but I have a better one:
Sell the damn contraceptive over the counter like the FDA recommended in the first place.
Unless we're going to now extend Bible police privileges to every cashier in the country as well, this seems a simple, straightforward solution. (As an aside, if we do decide to go this route, I recommend a guerilla campaign of vegans infiltrating supermarkets nationwide and refusing to ring up slabs of Midwestern beef because it offends their tender sensibilities.)
But of course, selling the contraceptive over the counter would deny the Christianists the luxury of passing personal moral judgment on their customers, something this constituency will fight to the last dying born-again breath. We know this because of the great lengths the FDA went to in order to mollify conservatives, according to Knight Ridder:
WASHINGTON -- Internal documents made public Thursday have raised new questions about the federal government's continued refusal to allow over-the-counter sales of the emergency contraceptive known as Plan B.
The documents, obtained by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., show that in February 2004, policymakers at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found no problem in allowing the so-called morning-after pill to be sold without a prescription to women of all ages.
...
Barr Laboratories, the maker of Plan B, originally sought to sell the drug over the counter to women of all ages. Only after meeting resistance from FDA officials and conservative organizations did the company opt to require prescriptions for girls ages 16 and under.
...
After midlevel FDA officials made their recommendation to approve Plan B sales without prescriptions, their superiors told them that FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan and other senior managers at the agency "cannot support the non-prescription switch of Plan B," according to the agency's records.
By that time, the FDA had already begun urging Barr to seek over-the-counter sales for those 17 and older.
So this non-medical, self-righteous conservative constituency managed to cram a so-called morals issue down the throat of a compliant FDA. No problem with tests on the drug, no physical problems seen ... but we must not offend the screechingly loud and pathologically victimized moral crusaders. And thus the punt to the organized fundie pharmacists. Can't wait to see what happens when this practice hits the Agriculture Department and meat inspectors. I don't have imagination enough to foresee what Old Testament-based hooey is coming our way from that one, but I have no doubt there's a plan in the works.
A pattern is beginning to emerge here, and I'm not just talking about manufactured victimization of Christians (see War on Christmas, for starters). No, there's a purpose behind this seemingly disconnected illogic. Deny women - particularly rural women - contraception. Deny women - particularly those in poor, rural states - the option of abortion. What's the end game here? Because surely San Francisco and Chicago and New York pharmacists are going to laugh their asses off and hand out the prescriptions like candy at Halloween.
Here's what seems to me to be the logical outcome of these practices, assuming people aren't going to stop having sex at the behest of the Christian right: Hundreds of thousands of pregnant poor, rural women - a whole red state swathe of Bible Belt breeders, churning out an eventual cheap work force in states that aren't renowned for education funding, minimum wage law advocacy, union support, safety and environment regulations, or fondness for "foreign" labor.
Maybe I'm losing it, but it's hard for me to see any other result if the Christianists get their way. The only other explanation I can come up with is that it really makes you feel even more biblically attuned if you can heap scorn on "sluts," "tramps" and "whores" from Salvation Heights, but that's an awful lot of planning when liberals are so easily locatable on the coasts to serve as demonized scapegoats.
Please. Feel free to talk me down from my Warehousing a Workforce Ledge. The altitude is making me dizzy.