Who should decide what medicines you can get, your doctor or just any pharmacist?

This post by John on AMERICAblog highlights a worrisome trend here in the US: pharmacists who refuse to give patients drugs legally prescribed by their doctors, like contraceptives, based on their moral and ethical judgment.

This is ludicrous. This country, because of the religious right's influence, is losing its mind. Your constitutionally protected religious affiliation freedom shouldn't be a reason for you for refusing to do your job. If you feel like your conscience forbids you from performing the duties required of your occupation, it's time for you to look for a new job, because obviously you can't be as effective in the current one as someone else would.

Pharmacists shouldn't be allowed to say, "Sorry, I'm a Catholic and my religion is against abortion, therefore I cannot sell you the pill." Anyone saying that should lose his job in a heartbeat.

My friend Fabrizio worked for a few years in Kuwait, managing an Armani store. His employees were for the most part Muslims. He told me that whenever the time for the Koran-mandated prayer came, all employees would just drop whatever they were doing, get on their knees, and pray. There was nothing he could say or do. It was what their religion mandated, and their country was based on that religion. Can you imagine the same thing happening here? No? Well, think again, because it could.

If we let people get away with not selling drugs they disagree with today, we might have to put up with them praying for fifteen minutes in front of us while our frozen food is thawing and we're in the checkout line at the grocery store tomorrow. What's gonna prevent them from doing it? It's their right to express their faith and no one can say anything about it.

I remember reading about a large Muslim community in some Midwest town here in the States where they were demanding the right to broadcast their prayers like they do in the Middle East. Over there, my friend told me, around 5 in the morning, a voice starts praying over speakers that can be heard anywhere in the city. There is no ignoring them. They are so loud, they initially scared him. How would you like the same thing happening here? Can't imagine it? Think again. The movement to obtain that right has already started, since people in that community were pointing at churches' bells at the start of the Mass and saying, "If they can why can't we?"

The more I see the effects of it, the more I wish the Founding Fathers did not write freedom of religion in the Constitution. All this wouldn't happen if the US had a national faith, like many other countries do. Why? Because the different faiths wouldn't be fighting each other to prevail.

Anyway, I digress. Point is, if you're a pharmacist, all you can say to me is, "Sorry, we don't have the drug. I can order it for you." You SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED to tell me, "My faith forbids me from selling you this drug."

If you say that, you should be fired.