Thursday, February 12th, 2009...10:21 am
Barto to Rural Residents: You Can Eat Cake!
Jump to Comments
Nancy Barto responding to complaints that her bill that allows pharmacists to refuse to fill certain perscriptions would be an undue burden on folks in smaller communities with fewer places to get those perscriptions filled:
Certainly, people in rural areas are accustomed to traveling long distances for services. This isn’t going to keep women from receiving these prescriptions.
This from a woman who represents northern Phoenix. If the pattern that I’ve seen from too many Maricopans holds, she probably whines when she has to drive to a far off community like Glendale or Tempe.
Of course it will keep women from getting contraceptives and abortifacients. This is exactly what Barto wants, isn’t it?
19 Comments
February 12th, 2009 at 10:38 am
Damn Ted, any excuse to bash Maricopa County, huh? Believe it or not, a lot of us here are just as opposed to what Barto is doing as you poor oppressed, marginalized dears from outside of our county.
February 12th, 2009 at 10:57 am
It’s like the scorpion said to the beaver…it is my nature.
February 12th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Always funny to see these people go out of their way to impose their religion on others.
If the god that they believe in gave us free will and didn’t want to make our decisions for us, how do they reconcile trying to do the same thing through legislation?
February 12th, 2009 at 11:35 am
By the way,
this isn’t to say that I don’t believe in a Christian God, simply that I can’t understand the contradiction that this seems to present.
February 12th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Tempe? Glendale?
Never heard of them.
I don’t think they are in downtown Phoenix, so I’m not certain that I’ve ever been.
February 12th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Tucson,
To answer your question, it’s because He only gave men free will. The little women are supposed to do what their told, dontchaknow.
February 12th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Oh, and BTW, and this may come as a shock to those of you who think every inch of Maricopa County is developed and choking with population, but we have rural areas too. It’s not Calcutta here, really.
Harrumph. Back to bashing Barto.
February 12th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Yeah, so much for the BS they peddle as free market principles. Not allowing someone to buy a product that others can legally buy. No choice to the consumer. No ability for the manufacturer to sell in the market. This is an interruption of interstate commerce on religious grounds.
February 12th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Oh yeah…I forgot to say…this is Freedom, baby!!!
February 12th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Come on guys,
The law gives religious pharmacists an out if they have moral qualms with emergency contraception. This is not about denying anybody the pill, it allows someone who disagrees with it to take a stand without losing their job.
And maybe it is just me, but I am pretty sure the Safford, Showlow, Winslow, Havasu, Gila Bend, Tucson, Yuma, Nogales and all the other great little cities and towns of our state boast more than one pharmacy each, so you folks down in Pima don’t even have to drive up to Phoenix to find a selection.
February 12th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
MK, no dice. Emergency contraception is legal. Period. If a ‘religious’ pharmacist has a qualm about it, tough. It’s freakin legal. If that pharmacist can’t dispense legal medicines, then he or she needs to find a different job. Period.
February 12th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
An editorial comment.. “Maricopan” would more accurately refer to the 30,000 or so residents of the bedroom community “Maricopa”, located in Pinal County just south of the Phoenix area. “Maricopan” referring to those in Maricopa County would be less accurate.
February 12th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Maricopa has 30,000 people now? Why?
February 12th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Maricopa has all those people because they overbuilt all those houses.
On the other issue…….do Circle K clerks get to decide which magazines to sell? Do grocery clerks get to refuse to sell candy bars to fat people? If pharmacists don’t want to do the job they can leave the profession. Their job is to fill prescriptions as ordered by the health care provider and requested by the patient.
February 12th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
Ted, you have been to Phoenix and you ask why?
February 12th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Try calling around to pharmacies in Tucson or Phoenix now asking who carries Plan B, which is emergency contraception and not even an abortifacient. Very few pharmacies, even the big chains, keep any in stock. If they do, it’s generally only a couple of doses. Contrary to what Representative Barto and her colleagues would have us believe, E.C. is not easily accessible as it is, even in metropolitan areas.
This is absolutely an attempt to limit access even further, but let’s be clear that alternative dispensaries are not nearly as easy to find as just driving to the next town. This is a bigger issue than just allowing professionals to refuse to do their jobs; pharmacies choose not to carry the medication because of the controversy it engenders. They claim that demand for the product is low, which they use to justify why they don’t carry it, or carry much of it. I find that a little cart-before-the-horse. If they carried more of it, and E.C. became easily accessible, more women would use it and we would have far fewer unintended pregnancies.
When taken correctly, emergency contraception prevents implantation, and does not impact an existing pregnancy. What to prevent abortions, Representative Barto? Then make E.C. more accessible, not less.
February 13th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Actually michael, the main way that EC works is by preventing ovulation and/or interfering with fertilization. While it’s theoretically possible that EC can prevent a fertilized egg from implanting, it’s not considered the main mechanism of how it prevents pregnancy. And the the sooner a woman takes the EC within the 5 day window after protected sex, the less likely it is that sperm and egg will meet so these right wing rocket scientists who are trying to make it harder for women to get are only increasing the possibility that “human life” will be extinguished.
February 13th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Will every one here that wishes to bash Catholic Hospitals that don’t allow abortions raise your hand.
Are their pharmacy’s violating the law?
February 14th, 2009 at 8:36 am
I practiced medicine in rural Arizona for two years. There’s a lot of empty space out there. It really would be a burden on many people, who might already have to drive long distances to get prescriptions of any kind, to have to drive even farther to find more pharmacies. That’s not some anti-Phoenix comment. That’s just true.
Emergency contra-ception (prevent conception) is taken within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse, and it can take that long for the sperm to travel the long journey through os and uterus and tube to nearly the END of the tube to get to that egg. If the patient can get her E.C., Mr. Sperm finally gets there and there’s no egg to fertilize.
It can also take that long for a patient to get an appointment with a doctor, get time off of work or whatever, borrow a car, and get to a pharmacy, only to be turned away. Yes, Virginia, there ARE places in Arizona where there’s only one pharmacy for many miles around. Put yourself in the place of the patient, who made a mistake, has to tell the receptionist, the nurse, the doctor, and the pharmacist, is embarrassed and nervous, and who gets told she’s a sinner by the pharmacist who withholds her medication. What kind of shape is she in to figure out which town to go to next? How is she supposed to know where the drug stores are in other towns? Does she have time to drive there? Is there enough gas in the car? It’s not always simple to just go to the next pharmacy.
p.s. thanks to Michael for his great comments.