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Women Do Not Have the Right to Access Birth Control

Women Do Not Have the Right to Access Birth Control

So you're a lady and you're getting ready to have some sexy fun times, but as you've been instructed since Health class 101, it's condoms and birth control or sexy fun times can turn into baby making times or disease ruining times. That's no bueno, so you ride on down to your local pharmacist with your prescription, and find yourself being denied your pills. Confused, you inquire as to why a Pharmacist of all people, would deny anyone pills WITH a prescription.

Surprise! Women in the United States do not actually have the right to access birth control or various other reproductive services. Say what now? It's called conscientious refusal. In this case, it means that a healthcare professional, the pharmacist, "has a desire or intent to refuse, or refers to the actual refusal of a course of action requested by a patient or expected by the ordinary standard of care." (Margaret R. McLean)

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) states that, "A pharmacy's or pharmacist's refusal to sell birth control does not violate a woman's federal constitutional rights. The U.S. Constitution imposes no limitations on nongovernmental institutions like privately owned pharmacies. Even if the refusal takes place in a state-owned pharmacy, a woman has no federal constitutional right to receive contraception. Although the Constitution protects a woman's right to contraception, it does not ensure that women can access reproductive health services."

What this means is that your Pharmacist can in fact deny you BC or morning after pills or anything having to do with prevention of pregnancy for say, religious or moral reasons, or simply because they don't want to. Now they do have the "option" of letting someone else fill your prescription, but it is not necessarily required and of course if no one else is around or there is only one Pharmacy near you, well, you're out of luck.

Women Do Not Have the Right to Access Birth Control

Thank goodness I live in a HUGE major city where if one Starbucks isn't open yet, there is, and I'm not kidding, one on the other corner so finding a Pharmacist is a matter of a two second phone scroll through, so should this ever happen, I have options, and I've never actually met a Pharmacist denying people prescriptions of any kind, least of all birth control, but what if you do live in small town USA. My friend lives in a really small town where there really is only one Pharmacist for miles and if they object to her need for BC, then she would have to drive hours conceivably to find some place else to get that filled. Imagine if some young girl who is raped in said town needs the morning after, and she is told on top of the horror she's just experienced, sorry, I don't approve, basically in essence condoning the rape.

I have a huge problem with this. To me, it's like hiring a gung ho vegetarian to work at McDonald's who believes meat is murder. If you can't do your job to the fullest extent, why would anyone hire you? Your job isn't to make judgement calls on people or to judge their lives, it's to dispense various medications. These people could seriously being endangering the health and well being of these women they refuse to serve. Also, if they want to stand on some sort of moral high ground, they don't know anything about any of the people who come to them for pills. They are just names and prescriptions. They could be handing pills out to rapists, racists, abusers, pedophiles, or those who fundamentally hate them or their religion, but they don't think to judge them or their medications or how by helping keep them alive, they may be hurting others. Instead they essentially pick and chose to deny any woman birth control, no matter the reason behind her need.

Women Do Not Have the Right to Access Birth Control

If you can't or won't do the entire job, then you need to work elsewhere. And yet, it's all legal. You can get denied services simply because someone thinks you shouldn't be able to prevent pregnancy. It is just incredible how so many people seek to control a woman's body. A woman can never seem to be able to make a decision about what goes on with her without thousands of politicians and religions and governments and parents and neighbors weighing in. Some people would literally rather a woman die due to complications of pregnancy, then allow her birth control or an abortion. I don't care who you are or what you support, our planet that we call home cannot support every woman of child bearing age having a child, let alone multiple children. We don't live in ye olden times where resources were abundant and free. We need BC and other methods to help control a population already out of control.

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Most Helpful Girl

  • @ Mytake Owner -- Even if you are not a big social-media person, this is exactly the kind of situation in which you could VERY easily harness the power of social media to rectify this situation.

    All you'd have to do is... post or tweet this. And then 2 people would tweet it to 2 people each, and those people would retweet it to 2 more people each, and... after 20 iterations of that, suddenly 2,097,151 pissed-off internet users are now aware that the CVS at 1234 Avenue Street wouldn't give a woman her routine BC combination pills.
    This would be... uhm let's just say, bad for business. It would be fixed in a matter of MINUTES. The managers of these stores are not stupid.

    This would be exactly like the situation where those two cooks at that noodle place in Virginia (?) stepped off the line because they didn't want to serve uniformed police officers.
    As soon as the internet got ahold of THAT... bam, those two were relieved of their jobs within a matter of minutes.

    People here are forgetting the OTHER side of this.
    Namely... Yes, the pharmacist can, in theory, decline to fill a prescription for whatever random reason. BUT... the pharmacist is also an at-will employee!
    In other words... The PHARMACY can -- in EXACTLY the same way -- choose to fire that particular pharmacist... ALSO for whatever random reason.

    I can't help but think it would simply be poetic justice, if a pharmacist were to deny a prescription on the grounds of "I have the right to deny this service"... and then the manager turned around and fired her/him on the grounds of "I have the right to terminate you." hahahah.

    Yeah.

    So srsly it's no worries, unless you're in the middle of some weird-ass religious commune town like Colorado City or Kiryas Joel or something.

    • Actually an employer in this instance could not fire said employee as they are indeed protected under the law, and would I guarantee launch into the same thing you suggest, which is a social media fire storm because their religious right is protected under the law but so are women's rights to contraception, save for, I don't know, actual access to said rights. Does anyone else see the problem with that whole work up? This is definitely the type of stuff of small town USA. Where my grandmother grew up is like this, where religion rules everything and every time I visit, my skin starts burning, lol. It's like living in an old back woodsy world that no one should ever travel to for any reason. But like I said, I live in the biggest of big cities, never had this problem, plenty of pharmacies on every other corner, but I have heard the stories of women who have been denied, and it's like, what century are we living in where a women's health is always being attacked.

Most Helpful Guy

  • I support women's right to access birth control, I never liked religious fanatics who are opposed to women's rights.

    • It's crazy some of the responses from men. These are the same men who go on GAG and talk about how women are just using them for alimony and child support, and yet here are women trying to prevent situations like that and unwanted pregnancy and instead of support that, they just shrug it off like it's nothing and no big deal. Oh sure, let some fanatic decide for your life. Well, come back and say that when you have to start paying child support.

    • I'm single and a virgin in my late 30's, so I don't think I'm going to have a chance to do that.

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What Girls & Guys Said

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  • As you have been doing, if you go to one location and they won't fill your prescription, then go to another establishment and take your business there. I get what you're saying and I understand it is frustrating, but I remember there being signs in businesses, especially those that are privately owned stating that they have the Right to Refuse Service to Anyway. Now in these modern times this is becoming less and less true, because federal governments are stepping in and saying this is discrimination, but that being said, if you go to a business and they don't want your money, then take your money elsewhere and give it to someone else for services rendered.

    • This is all good if you live in a big city where you have several thousands of choices (which thankfully I do), but I also have to speak for the women who don't like ones who live in small towns. When is the last time you had to drive 3 hours to get a condom or a store refused to sell you condoms because they didn't think you as a single person deserved to have sex unless you were married? In a lot of the cases, the pharmacists who have denied clients have refused to even suggest another pharmacy or have tried to even hold on to their prescriptions in some really bad cases or as one person had commented, tried to actively embarrass them in front of others. That goes far and beyond a regular denial of service, this is outright someone deciding what you can do with your own body... someone who doesn't know you and your life. To me, don't do the job if you're going to have so many moral objections to it.

    • Unfortunately, there are individuals who specifically take such jobs because they have righteous moral objections to some of the practices others in the field are doing or allowing and so they go into that field in the attempt to promote their own social view or to instigate their own code of what is acceptable and what isn’t. I’m not saying its right or even good business, from a business perspective, but realistically this is kind of the world we all live in right now. And going back to your question directed at me, I have had a pharmacist deny service to me due to their own personal views and actually did attempt to keep my prescription. Fortunately he was not successful and I was able to get it filled elsewhere, and it was a hassle let me tell you, because I was in a very small rural area outside the United States and I wasn’t just dealing with morality issues, but a cultural one as well. There’s never going to be a perfect solution to this.

    • Its admirable you standing up for other women, but it is an up-hill battle I’m sorrowful to point out.

  • Some women actually use BC to get their menstrual cycles on a regular schedule (i. e. every 28 days instead of a random period of time and an unexpected period). Most pharmacy employees deny women BC because they think the woman is being promiscuous and for some reason it's their business. Besides, if all schools are teaching kids to not only wrap it and tap it but to also take the pill to lessen the chance of a teen pregnancy, wouldn't pharmacies join in?

  • About 2 weeks ago I was in a situation where a pharmacist who was a old man in his like 60's asked me if I'm "Mej" which is like Miss but a title given to unmarried woman. He emphasized this greatly then continued to deny me getting the pill saying my medical aid was not found on the system or some BS. He got VERY angry at me when I questioned him and didn't want to help me even though I expressed that I need the pill, making sure everyone heard about me wanting the pill thus embarrass. I was on holiday somewhere for reference. I went to another place and the woman gave me the pill with NO problems. I'm still 100% convinced it was due to moral objections and thankfully in my country I think we can report them as I viewed a pamphlet at the next pharmacy about my rights at a pharmacy.

    • And fyi I'm going to report his ass as soon as I have the time.

    • That is so ridiculous and I'm glad you're reporting him where you are where at least you can. I mean honestly, what is the point of getting a LEGAL prescription if you get to a pharmacy and it's denied?

    • I've never had issues with my prescription ever as I have a medical aid that covers me everywhere. He was being a a-hole and I will report him for that. I'm taking responsibility by being on the pill so I don't see why girls should be shunned about it.

  • I can't understand why a pharmacist would refuse birth control. For me, I don't use birth control as a preventative measure for becoming pregnant. I use it because I am at risk for poly systic ovaries and have a hormonal imbalance. If I am off my birth control, I get horrible cramps every month that it makes me not want to get out of bed and makes me a person I wouldn't want to be around. men out there saying it's to help prevent pregnancy, you have no idea what kind of pain cramps can be. Some women have to call off work due to the fact that they are in so much pain. For me the only way I could function when I was off my prescription was for me to take a 500mg naproxen. If women just wanted it to prevent reproduction then I can understand this, but for a woman like me who has a serious health problem then I need it to be a "normal" functioning human being. To be honest I thought I lost my insurance due to the fact I got married and was off my bc, my hormones were a disaster. From reading the comments men have no idea how much bc can save a woman's life.

    • I do use it for contraceptive purposes but it also helps me manage painful periods. When I was off birth control the only way I could get through days 1 and 2 of my period was to pump myself full of pain killers and spendingredients half the day on the toilet... really great for productivity at work!

  • If men could get pregnant, the second amendment to US constitution would have been the right to possess and use birth control.

    • "And birth control pills would come in awesome flavours like nacho cheese and cool ranch!"

    • If that were true child support or alimony wouldn't exist. Got anymore dumb sexist things to say

    • @dudeman women do and can pay child support and alimony.

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  • Is this the first time you are taking the pill? If not, where did you get them before? Did you ask the pharmacist why he won't give them to you. If not, try it. Always stay calm when doing this even if your fuming inside. You get a lot farther when treating people with respect. Otherwise you make them not want to do anything for you. Try a reputable online pharmacy. They take prescriptions and if I'm not mistaken, they will take some insurances as well. You are in a tough situation, but there is usually a solution if you look hard enough. I hope I gave you food for thought. Good luck.

  • Definitely not right. They should not be allowed to refuse that. They are not giving you an abortion or something. It's some damn pills.

    • *Some damn pills prescribed by a medical doctor for reasons that are none of the pharmacists business. If they are sooooooooo opposed to filling out birth control prescriptions they should take the time to listen to women who suffer from PCOS or endometriosis about how debilitating their conditions are without the help of birth control pills... maybe then they'll understand that their job is to provide medication at the request of medical doctors, not to make assumptions about why a patient requires their medication, what activities they engage in in their personal lives, or the morality of those activities.

    • @Sara413 Yes, I agree. I take them more for relief from heavy periods than I do anything else. Before I took them, the bleeding was so bad I could not even leave the house.

  • It rarely happens so its not really an issue, plus their are plenty of more locations you can go to or you can use condoms (which they are also by law able to refuse to provide thus making it not about women but men and women). The fact is its a minor inconvience not an assault not a violation of your rights, in fact forcing some one to act in a way that they do not wish is a violation of rights so claiming a pharmacist is violating womens rights by denying a non essential drug is inaccurate. Ironicly you are stating they have to do as you wish and thus are demanding their rights be violated rather then making an argument for how womens rights are being violated. Do I agree with it? No but its their right they are the ones selling and providing a service they get to dictate what that service or product is. I don't claim my rights are being violated when I go to a Mexican restruant and they don't have Italian food. I don't complain if the grocery store doesn't sell the product I want, why would a pharmacy be any different? Futher more companies have policiesy and the individual cannot violate them, that is if the company allows for the selling of birth control then the pharmacist on shift has to do so so its only the few privately owned ones that would even do this. Not getting birth control is not the same as dying, claiming that they would rather women die is just being overly dramatic. Besides which who cares about whether women get birth control at every single pharmacy in the country or not when we don't even provide any reproductive rights to men? Seems kind of strange to complain about something so trivial when something far worse is happening. As for the population, we do not have an overpopulation problem, never have. In fact if you get technical we are having many issues where in many countries their is a negative birth rate so in some places their are actually not enough people being born to actually maintain the infrastructure of said countries.

    • So what about women who need birth control to manage symptoms of PCOS or endometriosis? Do they not have a right to access the medication that they need in order to avoid debilitating pain? You say it's so rare that it's a non issue, but that's easy to say when you're not the one "rare" case who is affected by this... and like the OP said, what about women in small towns where there is only one pharmacy? It's these small towns where you're most likely to run into the overly religious types who'd do this kind of thing in the first place. If the woman doesn't have a car or is otherwise incapable of getting to the next town over to try the pharmacy there she's fucked..

    • @Sara413 Women in some small towns would better not have PCOS. :-/

    • To continue the narrative of the low income woman I a small town who does not have access to intermunicipal transportation, if she is low income she is likely in a very tenuous working situation, meaning that if she takes time off work due to debilitating pain, she is likely to lose the jon, so she either has to risk losing her job or she has to suffer through inhumane and unbearable working conditions.

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  • Damn, any women in the UK can get that stuff easily for free.

    Plus why on earth would you work in a pharmacy knowing that people go there for birth control pills and the morning after pill.

    media.giphy.com/media/eI6NdZYSmzv20/giphy.gif

    • The stupid people are called leftist libs. They are so dumb they think they are smart.

    • @dudeman no one should refused medication period. If you can't do the job don't do it.

      Also politcally I'm center left.
      media3.giphy.com/media/qivbcSpS2mdAA/giphy.gif

  • Do you know anyone who has actually had a problem with this?

    • I only heard of one or two cases. Also people don't understand the business can refuse service in America.

    • @Thisperson98 Why should someone be required to violate their conscientiously held beliefs simply for your convenience? This is where the power of economic boycott becomes important. The pharmacist can refuse to provide you with birth control but you can organize a boycott of the business and try to pressure them into changing their policy. I can't imagine that any of the large chain pharmacies, such as Walgreens or CVS, would tolerate this behavior from any pharmacist.

    • That is what I tell people, if you don't like how they run their business, than don't do business with them.

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  • i guess fortunately most people live in areas with chain pharmacies so they don't have this store by store issue.

  • This is nonsense. MINORS do not count.

    • Minors may need BC more than anyone else. Be realistic, please.

    • @jacquesvol The author is claiming there is some magical "right" to access birth control. There is no more a right to minor's access than there is to alcohol or tobacco. You might argue for lowering the Age Of Majority, or you might provide it to your own nearly grown children, but no, there is no legal precedent for minors here.

    • @Curmudgeon If a qualified m. d. prescribed it, who can overrule his judgment?

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  • I agree. As a bus driver, if I were to not provide transportation to a passenger because I did not agree with their beliefs, I would be promptly fired, and for good reason. I'm not completing the job as described. As a driver, I have to pick up our customers. As a pharmacist, you have to fill your customers' prescriptions. If you cannot complete your job because of your moral objections, then get a different job.

  • Good thing there are plenty of capitalist pharmacies in my town. I haven't been refused once.

  • I work for a "Christian" based health care company. They will not cover birth control. I think this is reprehensible and irresponsible. More babies means higher healthcare costs. of course it goes back to the Catholic Church and outdated thoughts. I grew up Catholic, which is why I am not any longer.

    • Yeah never did get that argument, they are against both birth control and abortion. But apparently not orphaned, unwanted, abused kids (with their priests doing some of the abusing) that tend to end up with lifelong issues, which it what happens when allowed to be born. In the bigger picture it just makes overpopulation, starvation and disease worse. Fuck religion.

  • You can move to a less repressive environment. If all women did that, the repressive environments would die out or change, quick enough.

    • Yes, because picking up and moving your entire life is super easy to do, particularly for low income women...

    • @Sara413 Never said it was easy. Way to use a straw man argument.

    • Not a straw man argument bud... simply pointing out that it's not a valid solution for many, many people... so why put that forward? Wouldn't it make FAR more sense to use your political voice and power to increase access in these areas, than to suggest everyone who is inconvenienced by their right to medication being inaccessible to them just move?

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  • World isn't over populated. And why would you want to put fake artifical hormones in your body that makes it harder to have babies in the future, linked to cancer, and tons of other issues. Use a condom.

    • If you don't want to use birth control, then don't. But for many, many women it makes our lives much better in so many ways! It's not up to you or some pharmacist or anyone else to decide for a woman what she should or should not put in her body.

    • so your solution is that every woman should get pregnant? Condoms don't work 100% of the time. They rip, they break, some are old and don't work which is why many women use BC for their own protection from unwanted pregnancy. You're welcome to believe whatever you want to believe, but when your belief starts encroaching on my life and what I'm doing with my own body, yeah, we're going to have a problem because while you and others are steady saying "it's your right," you're ignoring mine and other women's rights to manage their own bodies. It's hypocrisy.

    • @Sara413 get out your feelings your reaching

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  • Stop it, I know its bad but abortion can easily cause person death or infertility. You can't just take pill anytime any time and get away with it, one mistake can easily cause your death or in...

    Listen you are not educated enough to know that now is the time to abort a baby or its not. This law allow the experienced and educated person to decide your faith when you lack knowledge.
    Pills contain estrogen and progesterone, Yes these control (abort) the ovulation but it only takes few hours for egg to got released and fertilized by sperm and once it done baby. These are the hormones that make sure your pregnancy survives throughout 9 months cycle. If you take pill at this time, you are just maximizing the chances of pregnancy. Its very long discussion google the function of progesterone and estrogen and you gona love the doc.

    • Progesterone and estrogen are naturally present to aid in the process of pregnancy and make sure fetus survives 9 months cycle but they also abort ovulation to make sure fertilization don't occur during this period. We use their abortion affect for our benefit and its good to stop the egg from release in the first place but when egg is released along with natural (both hormones) release, taking pill at this time means 200% chances of pregnancy.

    • Hahaha wow... What nutcase websites are you getting your information from? Lol Birth control prevents pregnancy from occurring in different ways depending on the birth control. If it increased the chances of pregnancy we'd all be knocked up so fucking fast and there'd be class action lawsuits up the wazoo! Lol And your understanding of how birth control prevents pregnancy is dead wrong. It's doesn't "abort" a fertilized egg... it either prevents ovulation in the first place, or prevents an egg from attaching itself to the uterine wall in order to be fertilized. Sperm doesn't fertilize an egg immediately - it takes 3 to 7 days for fertilization - AKA conception - to occur. If the egg cannot attach, fertilization cannot occur. I'd recommend not getting your information about birth control from crazy fundie Christian anti birth control sites...

    • @Sara413 Indeed. Finally someone who explains it correctly. :)

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  • There are different types of pills, and not every woman can take them. An analysis is done beforehand, and a doctor prescribes them the best drug for each case. On some women, they can have bad side effects, or affect other medication, or other organs that may be in a not-so-good condition. You and the pharmacist will never know any of this if analysis are not done beforehand.

  • Well does the Pharmacist you mentioned give the morning after pill out to other women or are they just refusing your friend? If they are against it then they likely dont stock it in their pharmacy. if your friend is underage maybe they can't give it to her without her parents permission. As for yoyr statement on others trying to control a woman's body thats simply not true, whenever I have sex I take control of my own body by using contraception properly and I am willing to take responsibility for any unexpected pregnancy on the dlim chance that my contraception doesn't work. A woman is responsible for her own body whether looking to prevent pregnancy or to deal with an unexpected pregnancy and this takes reeks of avoiding responsibility just because you feel entitled. If you have no contraception dont have sex its that simple.

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