Morning Roundup: Pharmacist Preferred to Have Woman Bleed Out

Beth Saunders

British advocates want to change medical abortion requirements, a pharmacist in Idaho refused to fill a prescription for a woman she believed had an abortion, Vanderbilt changes application letter, and Japanese teens are uninterested in sex.

British advocates want to change medical abortion requirements, a pharmacist in Idaho refused to fill a prescription for a woman she believed had an abortion, Vanderbilt changes application letter, and Japanese teens are uninterested in sex.

  • The British Pregnancy Advisory Service is pushing for health authorities in that country to alter a 1967 law that requires any abortion procedure, even a medical abortion, to be provided at a health facility. Essentially, that means that women who choose to end a pregnancy non-surgically must still return to a clinic to take a second pill. The BPAS would like the law to be changed to allow women to take a second pill at home, as is the standard in many countries, including the United States.
  • Planned Parenthood of Idaho has filed a complaint with the state pharmacy board after a pharmacist refused to fill a prescription for a medication that stops bleeding after childbirth or abortion. After receiving the prescription, the pharmacist called Planned Parenthood to find out if the medication was prescribed because of an abortion. The practitioner refused to say, which would have been a violation of medical privacy laws, and was hung up on when she asked to have the prescription transferred. While Idaho law allows health care professionals – including pharmacists – to refuse to provide care if it violates their conscience, one hopes that does not translate to pharmacists being permitted to refuse life-saving medications that STOP BLEEDING because of their judgments on a woman’s private decision. Leaving a person to bleed to death in the street because you think maybe they didn’t follow your moral code? Doesn’t sound very pro-life to me.
  • In an update to yesterday’s item on Vanderbilt University’s nursing school application, the school has decided to include a letter with their application that states nurses can asked to exempt from assisting with abortion procedures on moral or religious grounds.
  • Japanese teens are increasingly uninterested in sex, according to a study published by the Japan Family Planning Association. Thirty-six percent of males and 59% of females ages 16-19 said they were “indifferent or averse” to having sex. That’s a 19% and 12% increase, respectively, since 2008. You know abstinence only advocates in the United States are salivating over those percentages.

Jan 13

Jan 12