Religion coming between US pharmacists, women seeking birth-control pills (AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Some US pharmacists with strong religious beliefs are refusing to fill prescriptions for female clients requesting birth-control pills, causing alarm among women's rights organizations.

Such incidents have been reported in 12 states, while 11 state legislatures are considering bills allowing pharmacists to refuse selling certain products due to their moral convictions, according to the National Women's Law Center.

"People feel they can introduce those bills, (as) a result of the political atmosphere," Rachel Laser, senior counsel at the Washington-based organization, told AFP.

Christian conservatives have a strong influence in US politics, while President George W. Bush's Republican Party, whose political platform opposes abortion, holds a majority in the US Congress.

The trend is particularly alarming in rural areas, where a woman may have to travel several miles (kilometers) to find another pharmacy that will honor the prescription, Laser said.

Moreover, retail giant Wal-Mart, which in some parts of the country offers the only pharmacy for several miles, does not stock or order emergency contraception such as the "morning-after" pill, she added.

"Sometimes, pharmacists even refuse to transfer the prescription to another pharmacy," she said.

"We are talking about something about 95 percent of women use at some point in their life," said Laser, adding that there has been an increase in incidents of pharmacists refusing to fill a woman's prescription.

Karen Brauer, as president of Pharmacists for Life, is at the forefront of this controversial movement.

"We support the rights of any pharmacist to avoid dispensing a drug that can operate by stopping human life," said Brauer, whose organization counts 1,600 "steady" members.

"Our main purpose is to return pharmacists to a healing-only profession," she told AFP. "Birth control is used for contraception and not for treating any medical condition."

"I would recommend that a woman who comes to get the morning-after pill and gets turned down learn from what the pharmacist has to say and decide not to fill the prescription," she said.

The controversy could heat up if the Food and Drug Administration ever authorizes the over-the-counter sale of the morning-after pill, reinforcing a pharmacy's power to decide whether to sell a product decried by Christian conservatives.

The FDA last year refused to approve the pill's over-the-counter sale.

Brauer said she was fired by retailer Kmart for refusing to fill such prescriptions. Other pharmacists have been fired due to their unbending stance, she added.

"The morning-after pill is not a contraceptive because in most cases human life has already started," she said.

She now works for a hospital. "The job I have does not put me in a position to have to refuse dispensing birth control," she said.