The Pill

In Illinois, the governor is trying to pass legislation to force the sale of the morning after pill. This is meeting with opposition from conservative pharmacists who are ideologically opposed to selling it. According to one pharmacist,

"It's an infringement on a business decision and also on the pharmacist's right of conscience."

I'm a big believer in keeping out of other people's business as long as it doesn't affect others. If someone really wants to hurt themselves, can we really stop them (especially if there's no relationship between you and that other person)? Stemming from that value I naturally think that pharmacists are there to sell things to help people or make their physical and mental health better, and if the morning after pill is what a woman needs for that purpose, then she should have it. A pharmacist is not a doctor and does not have the right to diagnose and prescribe medicine for his customers.

Therefore, I think that that pharmacist's (incidentally, he's the Republican leader of the State Senate) first point about an infringement on a business decision is flawed. However, he might be making a valid point when he says that it is an infringement on his right of conscience. I'm obviously looser on this point than he is, both on general grounds and that I don't consider a zygote to be a person, but can you see yourself in a situation where you had to sell lots and lots of sleeping pills to a person, or sell him a gun you knew he was going to shoot someone else with?

Keeping this in mind, I think there are a couple things to consider. First, the argument against refusing to sell the pill because it destroys a life (against pro-unwanted birthers) is that there is no guarantee that the woman is actually pregnant and that a life is being destroyed, just that she and her partner forgot to use contraception. Second, if this point does not prevail, I think there is a readily available compromise that comes out of disagreement with the pharmacist's first statement about a business decision but respect for his second about right of conscience. This is to require pharmacies to sell the morning after pill as the governor ordered, but if everyone working in the pharmacy refuses to sell it then the pharmacy should be required to hire at least one person who does not have moral objections to filling the prescriptions and let that person fill them.

Link.