As the Food and Drug Administration ponders whether or not to approve the morning after pill, Plan B, for sale without a prescription, a new debate is beginning to surface. That is, are pharmacists who object to the dispensation of certain drugs legally allowed to withhold them from customers? This is leading to yet another challenge for women’s reproductive freedom in this country as stories are beginning to circulate about pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control and “morning after” pills. Some are only filling prescriptions for birth control pills for married women. These pharmacists believe that they have a right to follow their conscience.

A spokesperson for the Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom defends this action saying, “More and more pharmacists are becoming aware of their right to conscientiously refuse to pass objectionable medications across the counter. We are on the very front edge of a wave that’s going to break not too far down the line.”

On the other side of the debate, Rachel Laser of the National Women’s Law Center said, “This is another indication of the current political atmosphere and climate. It’s outrageous. It’s sex discrimination. It prevents access to a basic form of health care for women. We’re going back in time.”

Currently, pharmacists face dismissal or other disciplinary action if they refuse to fill a customer’s prescription. Meanwhile, women are stunned when they are unable to get their medications.

This controversy is just the latest in a chain of events that have tightened the noose on the entire issue of women’s reproductive freedom. This trend started when doctors and nurses began to object to performing or assisting in abortions.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops supports this trend, and a new group, Pharmacists for Life, boasts of 1,600 members. Karen Brauer, president of the group says, “Our group was founded with the idea of returning pharmacy to a healing-only profession. What’s been going on is the use of medication to stop human life. That violates the ideal of the Hippocratic Oath that medical practitioners should do no harm.” Brauer was fired for refusing to fill birth control prescriptions when she was employed at a Kmart in Ohio.