Friday, April 04, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

ASSEMBLY VOICE VOTE: Pharmacists told to heed doctors' Rx

Role of religious beliefs, dispensing medicine debated

CARSON CITY -- The Assembly in a voice vote Thursday approved an amendment that would prevent pharmacists from refusing on religious grounds to fill prescriptions for certain drugs.

The amendment, which turns the original version of Assembly Bill 144 upside down, would stop Catholics, Mormons and other pharmacists with religious objections from refusing to fill prescriptions for any drug, including contraceptives and the so-called "morning after" pill.

As originally written, however, AB144 would have prohibited employers of pharmacists from disciplining pharmacists who refused to fill prescriptions for religious reasons. The amendment to force pharmacists to fill all prescriptions was sought by Planned Parenthood.

Moving closer toward the original intent of the bill, Assemblyman Joe Hardy, R-Boulder City, announced he would try to again amend the bill before it received a final vote in the Assembly, which could come early next week. Hardy, a physician, said his amendment would require pharmacists to fill prescriptions unless they have a "personal ethical or religious" objection. He added requiring filling prescriptions for the morning after pill is one of his concerns.

South Dakota last year passed a law that allows pharmacists to reject filling prescriptions for drugs that could induce abortion or allow suicide. Anti-abortion groups say the morning after pill can be a form of chemical abortion, but Planned Parenthood says it is an emergency contraceptive that works by preventing ovulation after unprotected intercourse.

In an interview, Patricia Elzy, a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood in Reno, said her organization was contacted by a woman whose pharmacist in Carson City refused to fill her birth control prescription.

She said she knows of no other cases in Nevada in which pharmacists refused to fill prescriptions, though there is no mechanism for tracking such information. Elzy worked on the amendment with Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas.

"All legal prescriptions should be dispensed," Elzy said. "It should not be up to a pharmacist to override a physician's decision. A pharmacist should not decide reproductive health decisions of a patient."

During floor debate on the amendment, Assembly Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, said prescriptions are authorized by physicians, and pharmacists should not be given an opportunity to question their decisions.

"I realize pharmacists may have religious or moral concerns, but the physician is making the decision in the case as to whether a drug should be taken," Hettrick said. Some rural areas have only one pharmacist, he added, and the pharmacist's objection would prevent the patient from receiving the drug.

But even the revised bill would not guarantee that patients could find pharmacies to fill their prescriptions. The bill does not require a pharmacist "to stock a particular drug."

Elzy said no one can force a pharmacy to carry every prescription, so some rural patients might not have a nearby pharmacy where their prescriptions would be filled.

Assembly Commerce and Labor Chairman David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, expressed willingness to try to find language to satisfy the religious concerns of Hardy, Assemblyman Garn Mabey, R-Las Vegas, and others.

Mabey, also a physician, said pharmacists should not be forced to fill prescriptions, but he added he "can see Hettrick's point" about the problems in rural areas with only a single pharmacy.