Necessary Roughness

FOX News reports that four pharmacists fired by Walgreens for refusing to dispense “emergency contraception” are suing Walgreens for illegal firing.

Several thoughts:

First, we have today’s medical science twisting the meaning of words. We understand the meaning of conception to be the joining of the egg and sperm to form the zygote. Contraception, just changing the prefix in our language, then means something that prevents this joining. The term “emergency contraception” makes no sense with the classical definition of conception and contraception, unless one considers not having prophylactics in the middle of a hot one-night stand an “emergency”. The term is now being changed to mean prevention of implantation, something that occurs days after conception.

Secondly, we see what happens when smaller pharmacies are replaced by bigger ones to take advantage of buying drugs in bulk to reduce costs. An employer should be able to hire and fire whomever they want and suffer the consequence of their own actions. If consumers don’t like it, they have the choice to shop at any of the other three corners of the street—have you noticed mega-pharmacies tend to hang close to each other?

Thirdly, the State of Illinois once again assumes no market forces are in play with their “Health Care Right of Conscience Act” (talk about your ironic bill titles). There are enough pharmacies where if a pharmacist refuses to dispense a medication, the consumer can go somewhere else. There is demand for this stuff; someone will provide it. The effect of this ill-conceived (pun intended) legislation will be to reduce the number of pharmacists, as pharmacists either move out of state or change careers.