Walgreens to revamp training after woman denied a drug
Walgreens will revamp its training after an Arizona woman said she was humiliated when a pharmacist, citing personal objections, refused to fill a prescription to treat her miscarriage.
In an incident that sparked heated commentary on social media, a pharmacist at a Walgreens store in the Phoenix suburb of Peoria wouldn’t dispense a miscarriage drug for Nicole Mone Arteaga, who had just found out that her baby’s development had stopped.
“I left Walgreens in tears, ashamed and feeling humiliated by a man who knows nothing of my struggles but feels it is his right to deny medication prescribed to me by my doctor,” Arteaga said in a Facebook post on June 22.
According to BuzzFeed news, Arteaga was prescribed misoprostol, one of two medicines used in medical abortion. But the drug is also used as a standard treatment during miscarriages to help speed the process of expelling nonviable tissue, as an alternative to surgery. Arteaga, who later obtained the medicine from a different Walgreens store, didn’t immediately respond to a text message, or a phone message left with her mother.
Six states have laws that allow pharmacists to refuse to dispense medication based on personal belief, according to the National Women’s Law Center. Several others have broader laws that could be interpreted as allowing pharmacists to refuse to provide a drug, the group says.
Walgreens has policies that allow pharmacists to avoid filling a prescription when they have moral objections. But the pharmacist is required to refer the prescription to another pharmacist or manager “in a timely manner,” said Michael Polzin, a spokesman for the company.
“We will provide additional training to all of our pharmacists on appropriately handling these situations in accordance with our policy,” said Polzin. “We want the process to be as seamless as possible for the patient.”
Walgreens has apologized to Arteaga, he said.
Walgreens is the latest retailer to examine its training policies after an incident at one of its stores. Earlier this year, Starbucks faced a public outcry after two black men were arrested at a store in Philadelphia while they were waiting for a meeting without ordering. In response, the company closed all of its U.S. stores for racial bias training on May 29.
Arizona state Sen. John Kavanagh, a Republican who co-sponsored the 2009 law that allows pharmacists to refuse to fill abortion or emergency-contraceptive prescriptions based on moral or religious beliefs, said he was surprised that Arteaga wasn’t more sympathetic with the pharmacist, given that she eventually was able to get the medicine from another Walgreens location.
“What’s the problem?” he said. “She got what she wanted. The pharmacist complied with the law. I don’t see why she doesn’t respect the pharmacist’s right to not do this,” he said.
Most pharmacy chains have developed procedures to quickly find other pharmacists to fill prescriptions for patients when a pharmacist objects, said Gretchen Borchelt, vice president for reproductive rights and health at the law center.