This is NOT a debate on abortion! This is a discussion on which person has rights that should be respected, the medical provider or the patient.

Here are the scenarios:

A doctor who is trained and qualified to perform abortions does not want to perform abortions. Perhaps he is Catholic, perhaps he just finds it morally wrong to provide abortions.

He is the only doctor within 500 miles.

A poor woman wants an abortion and she cannot afford to travel, must he provide his patient with what she wants?

This is NOT a debate on abortion! This is a discussion on which person has rights that should be respected, the doctor or the patient.

What about the Target RPh who refused to sell abortion tablets to a patient? The tablets were available, the pharmacy stocked them, but the RPh was Catholic and it was against his personal beliefs to participate in an abortion in any way. This was a Sunday in a small town. The patient did not know where else to go and time is limited.

This is NOT a debate on abortion! This is a discussion on which person has rights that should be respected, the RPh or the patient.

A new mother wants her newborn son to be circumsized. The doctor has no medical cause to cut through healthy tissue to perform this procedure. He refuses, he is the only doctor available for this procedure at the time.

Who has the rights that should be respected? The medical providers or the patients?

Sorry Bubble. I did read the entire thread. Did pay attention and get involved. I'm telling you that's how I interpreted it. I understand that you think that I'm being obtuse and straying from the subject matter. It just seemed to me that you were using medical providers rights to open a forum on feelings about related hot button issues. I'm defnitely not wanting to argue any more than you are.

By reading your response to TOM's comments, you seem to know the real answer to the question you pose in your thread. You're saying that it's a non-issue by stating that doctors and nurses and pharmacists do not have to do what a patient requests (or tells) them to do. So what's your point?

Am I the only person who spoke to the issue you brought up as it relates to abortion and the morning after pill? Of course the issue of circumcision is a fairly hot topic these days too, but people didn't jump in on that too much.

You're sounding very defensive and I wasn't attacking. Sometimes I think that the written word here gets us in trouble that we never meant to cause.

Bubble it's YOUR topic, you can declare that it is about whatever you wish. I was just relating about how it affected me. That is obviously not important to you, so I will bow out of your thread as gracefully as possible.

P.S. I did know that you were a medical provider. I also know that you say you would never have an abortion, and that you hate them, but if I remember correctly you believe in a woman's right to choose. I believe you have addressed the issue more than once on different threads. That could have had something to do with my thought that there was a current of underlying issues imbedded here, particularly since certain words were incorporated herein.

So it is only a coincidence that this problem only happens about abortion, morning after and birth control pills.

And it is just another coincidence that the state legislatures only pass laws to allow people "not to do their job" because it involves those same issues.

By the way, I had no law protecting me that said that if I didn't want to fix a plane by the book and something went wrong because my moral indignation kept me from following the book, that I would be protected. No, that only happens when the worker's rights to chose override a women's right to chose.

Thank you TOM

Bubble: I never said that you didn't post non-abortion scenarios. What I said was that the discussion is definitely about abortion and the morning after pill. You accuse me of changing your words. I didn't change your words or question your intentions to discuss medical providers' rights. I just observed that in addition to what you said you wanted to discuss that you had used some very hot button words to make your point and that if you use those words, you can't expect those issues not to come up in the discussion. When you reacted the way you did to my posts, it made me wonder why you used those words if the thread wasn't about them at all and if you didn't want to discuss them why didn't you use other words.

I'd like to know why you got so upset that I spoke about abortion and the morning after pill when you are the one who included them in your thread? Why are you so angry? Why are you so accusatory in your remarks to me?

I'm afraid your heated reaction only goes to prove what I was saying, that those words are very hot button issues and you shouldn't be surprised, or angry, if they generate some discussion in your thread.