There’s a lot of emotional pain and disappointment that follows a miscarriage. For Nicole Arteaga, finding out her 9-week old fetus had stopped developing and died, was beyond devastating for her. When her doctor presented her with two options: either to have the fetus tissue removed surgery or to take misoprostol, a medication used to induce a miscarriage or end a pregnancy, she opted for the medication. The last thing she expected was her pharmacist to give her issues with it.
When she arrived at her local Walgreens in Peoria, Arizona to have her prescription filled, the pharmacist refused to fill in because of his own “ethical beliefs.” Can you believe that?
Arteaga even explain to him how she had planned to take her pregnancy to full term but unfortunately had a miscarriage that was completely out of her control. The pharmacist didn’t care and still refused to fill the prescription. Apparently in certain states like Arizona, Walgreens allows their pharmacists to refuse to fill certain prescriptions “for which they have a moral objection.”
Arteaga left the pharmacy practically in tears and fortunately received an email notification that her prescription was ready to be picked up at another location. She spoke to the Walgreens’ store manager and contacted Walgreens’ corporate offices. Arteaga also filed a complaint with the Arizona Board of Pharmacy. Lastly, she took to Facebook to share her traumatizing experience.
Not only did this pharmacist shame and humiliate her, but he also put her health at risk.
It’s especially upsetting because those prescriptions that conflict with these self-righteous pharmacist’s “morals” probably all relate to women and their reproductive and sexual health.
“I am unsure where Walgreens draws the lines with their pharmacist but does this mean he denies women the right to birth control and morning after pill, and what’s the stance with fertility drugs,” Arteaga mentioned in her FB post.
Arteaga’s Facebook post eventually went viral and according to Fierce Mitu, has been shared over 61K times so far. A lot of folks are disappointed in Walgreens for having this policy and disgusted with the pharmacist.
https://twitter.com/LloydWaldo/status/1010651921001205764
The fact that a pharmacist’s “sacred beliefs” could interfere with a woman’s health is infuriating. Walgreens needs to seriously rethink this policy and their treatment towards women. They need to do better. A woman not getting a prescription medication to induce her miscarriage is unacceptable.
