Follow Up on Plan B

My post on "Plan B" the "Emergency contraceptive" garnered many responses and it prompted me to dig a bit deeper on this.

To briefly recap the story, Pharmacists across the nation are being fired and in some cases sued if they refuse to sell birth control based on moral or religious objections.

The Pharmacists for Life International is defending the right of pharmacists to refuse to refer a woman who is looking to fill a prescription to another pharmacist.

Here is what they said:
"A pharmacist by virtue of properly understood conscience cannot be licitly compelled to cooperate in such a fashion with what he knows will result in a chemical abortion and, hence, a dead baby. Such activity is called material cooperation. Further, it is not an inconvenience to refuse to refer such a client since the pharmacist is doing the woman and her pre-born child a favor in terms of physical and spiritual health."

I did talk to a couple area pharmacists who said they would not fill prescription for Plan B. Their objections are not strictly based on an actual chemical abortion, they also include any and all forms of contraception. The pharmacists believe that human life begins at conception, however dispensing any drug that would prevent ovulation, implantation or fertilization would require them to participate in the moral equivalent of abortion.

Plan B does not affect a fertilized egg that is already attached to the uterus, according to Plan B's Web site. The problem is this drug is so new, independent studies do not exist.

I wrote a similar piece back in 2004 that I think everyone should read. You may look at the entire issue of "birth control" differently.

You can read it here

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