State pharmacy board gets an earful on Plan B proposal

Members of the state's Board of Pharmacy thought they'd hatched a decent compromise on emergency contraception -- allowing individual pharmacists to opt out of filling prescriptions but requiring pharmacies to either fill or find another that will "in a timely manner."

Thursday, a standing-room-only crowd of about 250 at the Renton Community Center disabused them of any illusion that they had settled the long-running, controversial issue.

Busloads of people from local Catholic parishes, religious and political conservatives and pharmacists blasted the proposed rules, saying they violate pharmacists' rights of conscience and religious principles and could drive independent pharmacists out of business.

On the other side, supporters said pharmacists must be prevented from "playing God" by standing between patients and their doctors. Some noted that timely access to medications is an issue that transcends Plan B, an emergency oral contraceptive designed to be taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex.

Before the public testimony, Rebecca Hille, chair of the pharmacy board, said the board already had received more than 21,000 letters and comments on the issue. The board meets again today and may adopt the rules as proposed, amend them, or delay taking action.

Doug Parris, director of a statewide conservative Republican organization in Edmonds called "The Reagan Wing," got a standing ovation from a majority of the crowd when he delivered a rousing denouncement of the proposal.

In America, he told them, businesses get to choose the products they sell. And they should refuse to carry a product whose "sole purpose" is to kill.

For more information

The proposed rules: www.doh.wa.gov

To view past comments: www3.doh.wa.gov/policyreview/

"If this were a healthy society, we'd be talking about banning abortion drugs completely," Parris said.

Public Health-Seattle & King County says Plan B is "not an abortion pill."

Theresa Schrempp, a Bellevue attorney, said the rules would disproportionately hurt small pharmacies. They would also abolish long-standing "rights of conscience" enjoyed by pharmacists, along with other health providers.

Supporters, many of them wearing pink T-shirts from Planned Parenthood, told the board that pharmacists have no business inserting their religious or ethical views between a woman and her doctor.

Trina Stout, 22, of Seattle, said she didn't have children, but someday she might. "I want the decision to be mine, not a pharmacist's," she said.

Dr. Jeffrey Schouten, chair of Gov. Christine Gregoire's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, supported the rules, saying people newly exposed to HIV/AIDS also need timely access to anti-retroviral drugs.

Doug Parker, an Issaquah construction engineer, worried that personal beliefs could lead a pharmacist to refuse to dispense anti-retrovirals. "Where does it stop?"

At one point, audience members got into a shouting match over the issue of whether Plan B causes abortion. The proposed rules never mention Plan B, but refer broadly to any "lawfully prescribed drugs or devices."

Carol M. Ostrom: 206-464-2249 or costrom@seattletimes.com

Information in this article, originally published March 30, 2007, was corrected March 30, 2007. An earlier version of a photo caption that accompanies this story incorrectly stated that Doug Parker supports letting pharmacists prescribe Plan B contraceptives. Parker was actually speaking in favor allowing pharmacists to dispense prescribed drugs.