The Reich is The Wrong

This is a review of the Ridiculous Reich's death grip on women's access to reproductive services and the implications of "refusal clauses" or "conscience clauses". (See your own state on this issue.)

We all know that the moral police, better known as rogue pharmacists, employed by the Ridiculous Reich, have denied women access to simple birth control. They have denied women access to emergency contraception (Plan B). But how far has it gone?

Besides the obvious problem of Reich pharmacists refusing valid, legal prescriptions and denying women access to their right to control their own reproduction, and many times forcing women to endure humiliating lectures and judgement, many other women require birth control for medical reasons and are suffering the same ridicule and refusal.

Some medical reasons birth control is prescribed:
Heavy, painful periods
Endometriosis
Irregular periods
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome

Reich pharmacists have decided for themselves that women with these conditions will just have to suffer because they are morally opposed to filling the medicine. Medicine these women need.

There have been numerous reports accross the country of this infestation of imposed morality.

More reports from cities such as Milwaukee, Wisconsin--of women being unable to get Plan B prescriptions filled at all within the 72 hour window. (In fact, that case led to a lawsuit after the woman ended up becoming pregnant as a direct result.)

A rape victim was denied Plan B by a rogue pharmacist.

Rogue pharmacists started to not only refuse to fill scripts for standard birth control and Plan B, but in some cases refusing to give them back or even tearing up prescriptions in the face of the people in question.

A group of "pro-life" pharmacists, Pharmacists for Life International, along with other groups with names like Physicians for Life, are encouraging doctors to not write birth control scripts, and encouraging pharmacists not to fill them--even if for legitimate medical reasons.

And "conscience clauses" not only apply to doctors but to whole hospital systems. As Merger Watch has documented, religious hospitals with restrictive policies, particularly the Catholic hospital system, but also fundamentalist Christian and Mormon hospitals, are gobbling up the health care system and using their version of religious dicta to direct doctors.

Most of these hospitals refuse rape victims emergency contraception, or even referrals.

And no credit to insurance companies! The vast majority have not willingly covered contraception. It's been an ongoing battle for years to get Contraceptive Equity , which particularly heated up when Viagra was made immediately available to men on insurance.

There are even judges now that--in "almost identical manner" to rogue pharmacists--are refusing to hear "judicial bypass" cases in regards to minors seeking consent for obtaining abortion services.

The FDA is keeping Plan B hostage because of concerns of promiscuity. The FDA is to decipher safety of drugs, not promote the moral code of the Reich. Outside interest groups, even our own President, has infested the FDA.

Multiple FDA advisory panels have recommended to sell Plan B over the counter (thus getting around the entire problem of "pharmacist refusal" by rogue pharmacists), but no progress has been made; in fact, the head of the FDA committee on reproductive health has changed no less than three times in the past year over the issue of Plan B, including the forced resignation of at least one head who was linked to Reich groups and the resignation of a second official regarding delays on Plan B. Senators Clinton and Murray are currently blocking the conformation of Bu$h's latest Reich appointee until a decision has been made.

Also, "conscience clauses" are expanding to other medications that the Reich disapproves of solely because they "prevent consequences of sexual misbehaviour and might encourage promiscuity".

A vaccine against human papilloma virus or HPV--which is the cause of nearly all cervical cancer and has been shown to be highly effective--may never make it stateside because Reich groups like the Family Research Council are already coming out in opposition because they claim it could increase promiscuity.

There is legitimate fear that an HIV vaccine will probably be opposed, should one ever be developed that is effective. An increasing fear is that Reich pharmacists will start refusing to give antiretroviral drugs to HIV patients because they "disapprove of their lifestyle".

Some new claims of refusals by Reich pharmacists:
Post abortion-related antibiotics
STD medicines, including Valtrex (which is prescribed for many reasons besides Herpes, such as chickenpox and mono).

this livejournal entry explains a recent refusal of Valtrex:

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I know a young woman who has the misfortune to have contracted genital herpes.
She is on a daily regimen of Valtrex to prevent symptoms from manifesting themselves.
Recently she took her prescription to a pharmacist who was apparently a fundamentalist Christian.
Not only did he refuse to fill the prescription, but he tore it up and handed it back to her, saying, "God is punishing you for your sin."
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It is important to underdstand that refusal clauses are becoming so vague and so discriminatory, as seen in This Washington Post article, that people need to realize this is part of a larger strategy where the Reich hopes to be able to eventually refuse medical services to anyone they disapprove of altogether.