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Last Friday, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich filed an emergency rule that clarifies pharmacies in Illinois that sell contraceptives must accept and fill prescriptions for contraceptives without delay. In taking this bold and decisive action against pharmacists who insist that their religious beliefs against contraception gives them the right to deny women their legal prescriptions from their doctors, he has done what I thought was not possible for an elected official in the current political environment; to stand up to the religious right and tell them "no." And I would like to offer Governor Blagojevich both my thanks and my admiration. It’s not often that a politician proves me wrong. I can only hope that governors of states across the country will begin doing the same thing.

Gov. Blagojevich made the point that the refusal of pharmacists to fill patients’ prescriptions for contraceptives, particularly the Morning After Pill and regular birth control pills, is occurring with an alarming frequency. It is happening not just in his state of Illinois, but in states all over the country, including Wisconsin, Texas, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, and California. "Now I don’t believe this is a coincidence. I have a sneaking suspicion that in all likelihood, this is part of a concerted effort to deny women access to birth control. Those involved in this effort may be getting away with this in other states, but here in Illinois, we are not going to let that happen," said Gov. Blagojevich. The emergency rule takes effect immediately for 150 days while the Illinois administration seeks a permanent rule. Under the new rule, if a pharmacist will not fill the patient’s prescription because of a religious or moral objection, another pharmacist must be available to fill it without delay.

In addition to filing the new emergency rule, Gov. Blagojevich also introduced a new toll-free number where women can report to state regulators if a pharmacy fails to dispense a prescription for contraceptives in a timely and appropriate manner. The toll-free number is 1-800-280-4149, and the complaint unit at Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) has been trained to handle these types of pharmacy complaints. If a woman in Illinois has a problem getting contraceptive prescriptions filled in future, she will have an immediate course of action, whereas before, she had almost nowhere to turn for assistance. Women who want to have the same recourse in other states would be very wise to write to their elected representatives, and request that a similar toll-free number be put in place for them as well.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America had high praises for the Governor’s action. "When medical professionals write prescriptions for their patients, they are acting in their patients’ best interests," said Steve Trombley, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area. "A pharmacist’s personal views cannot intrude on the relationship between a woman and her doctor. A pharmacist must dispense prescriptions issued by health care providers, otherwise the patient’s health is unnecessarily at risk."

Members of Pharmacists For Life will, no doubt, strongly disagree with Trombley’s statement, using the argument that pregnancy is not a disease. However, such an argument blatantly ignores the simple fact that if a woman went to the trouble of visiting her doctor for the purpose of obtaining birth control pills or another contraceptive, she obviously did not want to become pregnant as a result of sexual intercourse. When a pharmacist refuses to fill that prescription, this puts the customer at a higher risk for an unwanted pregnancy.