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Survey Finds Docs Back 'Morning After' Pill
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A majority of physicians think that pharmacists should have the authority to dispense emergency contraception, and that pharmacists should be required to fill prescriptions for contraception despite their religious objections, survey findings show.
The New Jersey-based marketing and communications research company HCD Research surveyed a nationally representative sample of 824 physicians, and found that 65 percent believe that pharmacists should have the authority to dispense emergency contraception.
A further 13 percent thought that pharmacists should have such authority if the customer were at least 18 years old.
Recently, there have been cases of pharmacists refusing to dispense 'morning after' contraception on conscientious ground. The American Pharmacists Association's policy states that druggists can refuse to fill prescriptions if they have religious objections, HCD's Glenn R. Kessler told Reuters Health. The policy also requires that they make arrangements for the patient to get their prescription filled.
Several states have proposed laws that would protect pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions. However, most of the physicians surveyed (78 percent) thought that state laws should require pharmacists to fill prescriptions so long as they are for legal drugs prescribed by doctors.
About 26 percent of surveyed doctor were Jewish, 25 percent were Protestants, 20 percent were Catholics, 11 percent identified no organized religion, 4 percent were atheists, 3 percent were orthodox Christians, 3 percent were Hindus and just over 1 percent were Muslims or Buddhists.
When the statistics were broken down by religion, 90 percent of Jewish doctors, 70 percent of Roman Catholics, 68 percent of Protestant doctors and even 57 percent of orthodox Christians felt that pharmacists should be required to fill prescriptions, despite their religious objections.
Overall, 52 percent of those describing themselves as conservative advocated this policy, compared with 80 percent of moderates and 93 percent of liberals.