Conscientious Objection and Pharmacists' Professional Obligation to Ensure Access to Legitimately Prescribed Medication

Andrea N. Lee, Case Western Reserve University School of Law

Abstract

This paper discusses legal issues surrounding pharmacists who refuse to dispense emergency contraception based on their religious views. One study reports up to thirty-one percent of pharmacists admit to not dispensing emergency contraception based on their moral or religious beliefs, leading to women’s limited access to a second chance to prevent pregnancy when their regular preventative method fails. Without a limitation on when pharmacists can deny patients access to legitimately prescribed medication, women’s fundamental right to choose whether to bear a child is no longer her choice, but her pharmacist’s choice. Legislatures must require pharmacists to act in their patient’s, not their own, best interests.