The pharmacists refused to honor the prescription refills not because of medical or religious principles but simply because they objected to the idea that a woman might need EC more than once. One pharmacist told the prescribing provider that EC "should be inconvenient" for women and their doctors, and that women who needed EC were "irresponsible and should suffer the consequences."Emergency contraception does not cause abortions, though women unexpectedly denied EC access are more likely to have them; instead, it prevents the fertilization of eggs and makes the uterine environment inhospitable to implantation, roughly the same effect brought about by successful use of the rhythm method.
Top 10 Civil Liberties News Stories - August 22, 2006 Edition
By Tom Head, About.com Guide
ACLU: New York Pharmacists Altering Emergency Contraception Prescriptions
A pharmacist carefully fills a prescription. Photographed in a Washington, D.C. drug store, circa 1915.
Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
It's no secret that right-wing pharmacists throughout the country have been refusing to fill emergency contraception prescriptions for "religious" reasons, but five New York pharmacists have now taken it upon themselves to fill EC prescriptions once, then quietly modify the prescription so that it doesn't allow refills:
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