In good faith?

Tuesday, June 17, 2008 | 2:05 a.m.

In some communities, people seeking to purchase birth control pills, the Plan B emergency contraceptive, condoms or other prophylactics are at odds with pharmacists who refuse to fill such prescriptions or sell such products because they say doing so violates their personal moral beliefs.

The Washington Post reported this week that a growing number of pharmacists are asserting their “right of conscience” over the rights of patients seeking medicines.

A Chicago attorney representing a pharmacist who was fined and reprimanded for refusing to dispense birth control pills told the Post the “United States was founded on the idea that people act on their conscience.”

But others say such refusals could have dangerous health ramifications for women seeking contraceptives that are legal and are prescribed for a host of medical reasons beyond preventing unwanted pregnancies.

Women may use birth control pills to prevent pregnancies while taking other medications that could cause severe birth defects.

And the Plan B, or “morning after,” emergency contraceptive often is prescribed for rape victims. A woman in such a situation should not have to face being humiliated by a pharmacist who turns her away as immoral. Such antics also waste precious time and compromise the efficacy of an emergency contraceptive.

What’s more, the Post reports, some pharmacists not only refuse to dispense the drugs but also keep the prescriptions so patients cannot have them filled elsewhere.

Four states require pharmacies to fill all prescriptions or help women get them filled at other stores. Ten states are considering such legislation, the Post reports.

It is a pity some pharmacists need laws to force them to do right by patients seeking the medicines that doctors have prescribed.

The decision on whether a particular medicine should be prescribed is to be made by doctors and patients, not pharmacists. Doctors, pharmacists and other medical personnel do have a right to act on their moral beliefs, but not at the expense of people seeking legal and prescribed care.