corrente

Jeralyn at TalkLeft reports the recent development at your local Acme/Albertson's/SaveOn (where I happen to shop):

"Albertsons Corporation agreed to accommodate its pharmacists' right to refuse to fill prescriptions that violate their religious or moral beliefs. The accommodation came on the heels of a lawsuit filed by attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) and the Christian Legal Society (CLS) against Albertsons and Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on behalf of pharmacist David Scimio.
Blagojevich imposed an "emergency rule" stating that a pharmacist "must dispense ...without delay" contraceptives, including so-called emergency contraceptives such as the "morning after" pill, despite the state's right-of-conscience act.
Steven H. Aden, chief litigation counsel of CLS's Center for Law and Religious Freedom, said the right of conscience is an important component of religious liberty. "Pharmacists should not be forced to fill prescriptions for the 'morning after' abortion pill," he said, "if it violates their conscience."
Shortly after ADF and CLS filed suit, Albertsons distributed a memo to all its Illinois pharmacists stating it would accommodate their right of conscience by permitting them to refer prescriptions to which they conscientiously object to another Albertsons pharmacist orto a competitor."

Among the ADF's "ministerial allies" is the mighty dachshund harrower James Dobson's Focus on the Family (big surprise there).

Jeralyn notes the implications of allowing clerks to decide who they will serve in quoting from a letter to the editor of the Salt Lake City Tribune, whose author cautions that she was denied service by an Albertson's pharmacist simply for trying to get a an anti-alcoholism drug prescription filled:

"As I handed my prescription for antabuse and naltrexone (anti-craving drug) to the pharmacist, I saw his face change and harden. He informed me that he didn't carry that drug (never looking me in the face) and that I needed to go somewhere else as he tossed the prescriptions back at my pathetic self. I will never forget how I felt that day or how I almost let a self-righteous, judgmental pharmacist change my life. I can't imagine what he would do if someone wanted the Plan B pill. Pharmacists fill prescriptions, they are not a customer's moral conscience. If they can't take the heat, they should get out of the pharmacy."

Yes, that's what you want, isn't it, you craven hypocritical "fishers of men"?

Well, you know the whole world has gone topsy-turvy when you can quote Glenn Reynolds over at Instapundit because he gets it, too:

"Over at The Corner we're seeing a rather large number of abortion-related posts today. In this one (which really goes beyond the abortion issue) Kathryn Jean Lopez decries a poll showing that 80% of Americans think that pharmacists ought to have to fill prescriptions for contraceptives even if they're personally opposed to birth control.
Of course, this only matters because pharmacists enjoy a government-created monopoly on the dispensing of prescription drugs. Just take that away, and the problem disappears, too. In the meantime, like others who enjoy government monopolies, they are forced to make some concessions to public convenience. That doesn't strike me as an overwhelming imposition, but if the pharmacy profession feels otherwise, I'll be the first to support a move to eliminate its privileged position."

Yes, indeed. Give those scripts to someone who'll be happy to have a paying job, and watch them get filled.