Rape Victim in Arizona Denied "Morning After" Pill

This is outrageous. A 20 year old rape victim was denied access to the "Morning After" Pill in Arizona. The pharmacist on duty refused to fill the prescription because of moral and religious objections.

Rape
victim: 'Morning after' pill denied

After a sexual assault one recent weekend, a young Tucson woman spent three frantic days trying to obtain the drug to prevent a pregnancy, knowing that each passing day lowered the chance the drug would work.

When she finally did find a pharmacy with it, she said she was told the pharmacist on duty would not dispense it because of religious and moral objections.

"I was so shocked," said the 20-year-old woman, who, as a victim of sexual assault, is not being named by the Star. "I just did not understand how they could legally refuse to do this."

Women who report sexual assaults to police receive treatment, examination and the immediate offer of emergency contraception at a local emergency room, according to the policy of most Tucson hospitals.

But, like many sexual assault victims, the 20-year-old woman did not report the assault because she felt traumatized and guilty she had put herself in a situation that left her vulnerable. She was mistakenly locked outside a gathering at a friend's house and accepted the offer of a neighbor to stay at his place.

"This (sex) was with someone I did not even know and did not want to have intercourse with, and I am in no place now to have children," she said. "I just don't think this should be the pharmacist's decision."

So nice to know that the pharmacist is pursuing his own moral high ground here. However, what about the rape victim? As a human being on equal footing with other human beings, and especially as a human being who has been sexually violated by another human being, she deserves the relief that she needs to move on with her life. She has been traumatized enough! Her dignity and values are being compromised because of the male pharmacist’s "moral" superiority complex. In effect, the pharmacist is denying a victim of rape the right to life ~ that is, the right to live a fulfilling life without the burden of an unwanted child conceived during a violent crime. Why does the pharmacist have power over this woman's life?

I am acquainted with a Catholic woman who was raped. The rape resulted in the birth of a daughter, and she chose to raise the child. She does the best she can in light of the circumstances, but I can tell you that I feel an overwhelming sense of resentment and anger at life from the core of her being each time I’ve been around her. It makes me sad for her. She has allowed her guilt and shame about the rape to control every aspect of her life. She’s lonely, never been married, and controlling beyond the level of a control freak. Tightly wound. Maybe severely wounded is a better description.

I vividly recall the photo on Thursday, November 6, 2003, of 6 men smiling, huddling around George W. Bush as he signed the bill banning late term abortions into law. Bush signs late term abortion bill into law To this day, that photo of shiny, happy, "morally superior" men standing around Bush’s desk assuming a victory pose over women’s rights gives me the chills.

Abortion, for whatever reason, should be between a woman and her doctor. It’s about the right to privacy. I realize this is a "hot button" issue, but the argument is a values argument. Personally, having had two miscarriages, one of which was at five months, I don’t easily buy into the "abortion is murder" argument. I view the fetus as a potential person, just as an apple blossom is a potential apple. Not all blossoms mature. The fetus is fully dependent upon the mother for its existence. Sometimes things beyond our control happen to the fetus; and sometimes they happen to the mother. The physically dependent fetus does not have a conscience. Additionally, I view it as a quality of life issue. It’s a timing issue. It’s also a health (mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and physically) issue. At any rate, pitting one set of values and beliefs based on faiths born from mythology against another set of values and beliefs based on a different set of circumstances isn’t the business of government.

The consequences for this rape victim are the result of the actions of men who believe that they’re morally superior and as such deserve to have power over women.

Women need to seize control of this issue to assure that the right to abortion is private, safe, and legal for all sisters.

And one final note, I bet that on that night in Tucson when the rape victim was frantically attempting to fill her prescription (to no avail), thousands of men in that city were able to pick up their prescriptions for Viagra, Cialis and all of the other "woody" drugs. Because boner pills are abundant. (They’re symbolic for power over women, dontcha know?) I wonder how much seed has spilled to the ground in the form of monkey spanking (and yes, there is an obscure reference to our Commander in Chimp in that phrase) because of those wonder drugs? Isn’t that just as "evil" as an abortion?