Pharmacists Forced to Become the New Abortionists

TORONTO, Sept 6 (LSN.ca) – It was revealed today that the Ontario Tory government is allowing and funding a pilot project in Toronto where pharmacists will be able to dispense abortifacient morning-after pills without a doctor’s prescription. Such a dangerous move was shelved recently in British Columbia when B.C.’s College of Physicians and Surgeons realized that the venture would leave the pharmacists liable to inevitable lawsuits. Other concerns about the pills included women’s health and safety, the conscience rights of pharmacists, informed consent, and the manipulation and pressure on governments from large corporate interests.

Deanna Laws, Registrar of the Ontario College of Pharmacists told LifeSite that the liability concerns were unclear since the college “does not yet know the details of the pilot.” However, she noted that the college approved the measure without even knowing the details. Laws revealed that last September the college council considered the matter at length and approved a motion to support the program. CBC notes the program has the backing of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada, the Canadian Medical Association, and the Canadian Pharmacists Association.

The CBC reported that the Toronto program will be “based on a successful program in Washington State.” The Washington state program gave training to pharmacists so that they could themselves “prescribe” the abortifacient drugs. Christina Alarcon of Pharmacists for Life in BC told LifeSite that such a training program was launched in BC before the project there was scrapped. Alarcon has a copy of the training manual and described it as “full of pro-abortion propaganda.” She also noted that her colleagues who had attended one such course described it as “unprofessional” and noted that no physicians were there to train pharmacists in diagnosis. The training manual suggests pharmacists mislead patients by telling them the pills will not cause abortions. They circumvent outright lying since the manual considers “conception” to occur at implantation rather than at fertilization, even though all genetic science teaches human life begins at fertilization.

Health and safety concerns revolved around the drugs side-effects, both physical and psychological. About 50% of women experience nausea and 20% vomit. However, far more serious side effects include the increased risk of ectopic pregnancy and infertility. The Princeton University website promoting ECPs also warns: “It is possible … that a woman using ECPs could have one of the dangerous or even fatal complications that have been reported in very rare cases with normal, prolonged use of birth control pills. These include: thrombophlebitis (bloodclots in the legs), lung clots, heart attack, stroke, liver damage, liver tumor, gallbladder disease, and high blood pressure”. Moreover, health professionals have advised women who smoke cigarettes and those who have experienced any of the following conditions are advised not to take ECPs: blood clots in the legs or lungs, cancer of the breast or reproductive organs, stroke, heart attack, and “any serious medical disorder such as diabetes, liver disease, heart disease, kidney disease, sever migraine headaches, or high blood pressure”.

Dr. John Shea, medical advisor to Campaign Life Coalition, told LifeSite that the long term effects of the MAPs are unknown. Also there is a danger that if taken improperly later in pregnancy the pills may cause the baby to be born abnormal, a sure prompt for lawsuits.

Pharmacists are scheduled willingly or unwillingly to become the new abortionists in this latest invention of the Culture of Death. While certain groups attempt to misinform the public, suggesting that the drugs do not cause abortions, science is clear that the pills “irritate the lining of the uterus” so that if fertilization has occurred the tiny embryo is not able to attach to the lining of the uterus and is thus killed. (form more on how the pill works see https://www.morningafterpill.org/map2.html) Pharmacists who would not wish to participate in such activities due to their convictions are offered no protections in law, and are liable to job loss if they refuse to participate in the doling out of such potent drugs with or without prescription. Thus this issue brings the need for conscience legislation to the fore once again.
(https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/feb/000211.html#1)

A signed physicians’ statement on MAP notes that “We also believe that the widespread availability of morning after pills will also increase pressures on women for unwanted sexual intercourse, which will ultimately result in women being aborted without their knowledge or consent.”
(https://www.morningafterpill.org/mapstate.html)

While the United Nations has been behind the global promotion of ECP, the Vatican has condemned it in no uncertain terms. Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls, Director of the Holy See Press Office, made public a declaration last September in which he said, “the Holy See has opposed introduction of the promotion of so-called ’emergency contraception’, because it considers such material an abortifacient.”

For more on the UN’s backing of ECP see:
https://lsn.ca/ldn/1999/dec/991210a.html

See the CBC report at:
https://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/NWview.cgi?/news/2000/09/07/pill000907