"pro-life" drugstores & refusal-to-care: tg ef

[Galadriel]

A couple of articles (fairly recent) on this growing phenomenon. These articles focus on women's care/issues, but this makes me really nervous as a tg... what if I am in a car accident and need emergency care, but the ambulance driver or doctor refuses to assist me because "they disagree with my lifestyle" ??

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...502180_pf.html


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6...045/226/536744

[cam22001]

A couple of articles (fairly recent) on this growing phenomenon. These articles focus on women's care/issues, but this makes me really nervous as a tg... what if I am in a car accident and need emergency care, but the ambulance driver or doctor refuses to assist me because "they disagree with my lifestyle" ??

I'm almost certain that NO doctor would withhold his assistance for that reason. Same goes with the drivers; they have seen everything. You can always ask one or two to be sure.

[dcnb1986]

Comming from someone who works Fire/EMS I am here to tell you that I have a legal obligation to act. Meaning if I am called to assist you in any way be it a car accident or what have you I can not refuse to give you treatment. If I did refuse to render treatment I could have my medical license pulled, be fired, and face jail time and or fines for gross neglegance. It doesn't matter if I'm on duty or off. I have to act. Kind of like if a cop see's a robbery. He has to act no matter what.

[/quote]

[Justawannabe]

I don't know about refusal for moral reasons, but during the height of the aids crisis, there were a couple of fairly high profile situations (one in DC) where ambulance workers did refuse to assist a trans-person. It's been years since I saw a report on the incident but it was disturbing at the time.

Sean

[cam22001]

dcnb1986, on behalf of Galadriel, I need to thank you for your comforting words.

[Galadriel]

I'm glad to hear everyone's thoughts, and especially it is nice to hear from dcnb1986... I hope I don't sound unappreciative of the work you and other professionals do. It's comforting to hear what you had to say, and most medical professionals have been kind to me. Nevertheless, I have heard of such cases happening before... and according to these articles, a small group of ideological people may have actually worked their way into the ranks of EMT for the specific purpose of denying transport to women in need of an emergency abortion. I still can't help but feel uneasy about that possibility.

[SarahG]

A couple of articles (fairly recent) on this growing phenomenon. These articles focus on women's care/issues, but this makes me really nervous as a tg... what if I am in a car accident and need emergency care, but the ambulance driver or doctor refuses to assist me because "they disagree with my lifestyle" ??

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...502180_pf.html


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6...045/226/536744

Hmm, I'll have to check to see if I still have the emails but my memory is saying back when I was on the Canadian activist list serv there were multiple stories, c2004/2005, where postops were refused treatment in some Canadian hospitals after disclosing that they were trans.

Edit; couldn't find the email I was looking for but I found this, dated Nov 2004. Yea, its a few years old now, and I have no further information on the story.

"What happened to Cynthia?

Cynthia Coussens entered the Centre Hospitalier des Vallées de l'Outaouais in Gatineau (Hull) on October 19 with a serious medical condition.

The first doctor in Emergency, gave her a thorough physical examination, which elicited nothing but concern. She was asked if she had had surgery previously, and told the doctor she’d had Gender Reassignment Surgery. This doctor was professional and compassionate.

Medical equipment was attached to Cynthia, and Sylvia, as she had to leave, told Cynthia some of the nurses seemed “amused” she was her spouse.

The next morning, October 20, on the ward, nurses treated Cynthia with respect, referring to her as “Madam Coussens.” Other patients, however, and their visiting family members stared, some pointed, and giggled at her continuously. Two male patients in the ward, “monitored patients,” watched her intensely.

There were more tests, and more concern expressed on the part of another doctor, who said a specialist had to be called and even more tests had to be carried out.

That night the “monitored patients” were not monitored: three times one stood at the foot of her bed yelling “hey” at the top of his lungs. It seemed no one particularly worried about why he targeted her.

The next morning, October 21, Cynthia was told tests could be done at this hospital and she wouldn’t have to leave. She was taken to a room for the test, but was given no assistance to get in position for it, and was roughly treated. After the test, she had to remove herself from the test area.

Horrible treatment

Her IV was roughly treated by staff, causing blood to seep out of the needle site onto her arm and into the IV tube. Only when the patient next to Cynthia insisted did the IV get fixed. The nurse ripped the old one out, blamed Cynthia for the problem, and didn’t apologize for what she had done. There was no mistake this was rough treatment. Cynthia cried out in pain, and was beginning to feel distressed.

Sylvia arrived after lunch, when the nurses told her Cynthia was not allowed to eat. It turned out no doctor ordered this, nursing staff just decided she shouldn’t be given anything.

Cynthia was moved from the place where she had been, and where she had found a friend who’d spoken up for her.

A third doctor came to her, but did not then identify himself. He said she was “Coussens.” In their conversation he said he was the specialist, there was nothing wrong in the test results, and asked the same questions the other two doctors had. When he got to the surgery question, he didn’t understand when told of GRS. She explained. He stood back, looked angry, and confused, said Who did that to her?

Transphobia

He left, returned with her test results, and told her to go to another doctor, another hospital, and leave, right then.

As she was preparing to leave, in disbelief, her friend came up to her, and told her that the nursing staff had been speaking, in French, loudly enough, for all the patients to hear, about her status.

Cynthia was admitted to the Ottawa Hospital for further tests. She is recovering at home.

This should concern us all

The entire LGBT community is appalled and dismayed by this treatment which seems clearly to highlight a lack of information and sensitivity on the part of hospital staff, particularly from one whose oath is to “do no harm.”

This type of behaviour not only leaves trans-identified people at the mercy of hospital staff but compromises the notion of equal access to health services for all people.

[justatransgirl]

.....

[the_corner]

From the first article....

The most common, widely publicized conflicts have involved pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control pills, morning-after pills and other forms of contraception. They say they believe that such methods can cause what amounts to an abortion and that the contraceptives promote promiscuity, divorce, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and other societal woes. The result has been confrontations that have left women traumatized and resulted in pharmacists being fired, fined or reprimanded.

Now... can someone explain me WHY CAN THEY REFUSE TO FILL PRESCRIPTIONS?.... If you have a prescription from a LICENSED DOCTOR AUTHORIZED TO PRESCRIBE IN YOUR COUNTRY.... what authority does the pharmacist have to refuse?

It seems to me that people are no longer paying attention to doctors.... to instead follow an "opinion".... the "opinion" of the insurance company, or the "opinion" of the pharmacist... based on his morals.

It doesn't matter if they "believe" that whatever method causes "other societal woes".... if you refuse to fill a prescription given by a professional licensed by the government of your country (the doctor), then you should be put out of job for negligence.

The job of the pharmacist is to dispatch, not to argue about the reasons the doctor have. It is the doctor who is entitled an opinion... an opinion based on years and years of hard studying and practicing on a specialty... and then, is the patient the one entitled to accept that opinion, or look for a second one. (not the pharmacist, or the insurance company supervisor)... just my

[SarahG]

Now... can someone explain me WHY CAN THEY REFUSE TO FILL PRESCRIPTIONS?.... If you have a prescription from a LICENSED DOCTOR AUTHORIZED TO PRESCRIBE IN YOUR COUNTRY.... what authority does the pharmacist have to refuse?

Some states in the US, Michigan is one of them, have state laws allowing medical professionals to deny treatment in cases that aren't considered life threatening if carrying out that treatment requires them to violate their religious/moral rules.

I do not believe this has been challenged at the supreme court level, and I don't personally know anyone who has been denied say, HRT under this situation. It was created mostly in the aftermath of pharmacists who did not want to fill slips for emergency contraception (morning after pills). I know in NY there have been (usually Catholic) hospitals that refuse to give even rape victims access to that pill, and its been an on going legal issue for a number of years.

The law assumes that if you can't get what you need (when its not an emergency) you can go somewhere else until you find someone who has no religious objections. This might, might work in a place like urban CA but if you're in a rural area with under a dozen pharmacies, especially in a very religiously conservative area, there is a VERY good chance you'll NOT find someone within driving distance who will fill your prescription (if it deals with contraception and other socially volatile issues).

I don't personally know anyone this has happened to, but that doesn't mean it is a rare practice. I seem to recall that some pharmacy chains have tried to adopt company wide policies prohibiting certain types of treatment in the past, like Walmart, whose founder was a religious crazy that can be easily googled. I've never had a problem with a dr reperscribing slips for hrt once I was already on it, I've never had a pharmacy refuse to fill it, but I also have only used four pharmacy companies for filling all my slips and two of them are mail order wharehouses that aren't personal to the level where someone would easily go "wait why am I filling this order?" Most that ever happened myself was one time when I was very early on hrt, wasn't fulltime yet, and hadn't had my name changed yet a pharmacist was curious and tried to warn me that "there would be side effects of taking that stuff at those dosages" but it was handled discreetly and wasn't an issue after I said "I'm all aware of that from my doctor."

I am not aware of a case being reported on in recent years where life saving std treatment (like for aids) was refused on religious objection grounds but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened. Some dr offices have their own pharmacies, when in doubt try to get what you need from the person writing the slip since you already know they're willing to go that far.