Pharmacists and the “Morning-After Pill”: Creating Room for Conscience Behind the Counter

TL;DRAbstract

A woman walks into her local pharmacy, where she has been a customer for years, to fill what she believes to be a routine prescription for birth control. The pharmacist, after perusing the doctor’s drug choice, takes a deep breath, looks the customer in the eye, and says, “Sorry, my conscience does not allow me to fill this. Please take it elsewhere.” What prompts the pharmacist’s unusual response? Is birth control no longer legal? Does the Constitution no longer guarantee the fundamental right to contraception? While such questions might be racing through the woman’s mind, a closer look reveals that this is no routine prescription for birth control. Rather, the doctor prescribed a particular type of drug, commonly called the “morning-after pill” or “emergency contraception,” which women take within seventy-two hours of sexual intercourse to prevent pregnancy beyond administration of the drug.1 A scientific controversy surrounding the effect of the drug prompts the pharmacist’s unexpec

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