By CyberPsycho - 19/08/2016 20:57 - United States - Nashville

Today, a pharmacist slut-shamed me for taking birth control. I'm still a virgin, and I only take those pills to help with my acne and period cramps. FML
I agree, your life sucks 18 875
You deserved it 1 214

CyberPsycho tells us more.

UPDATE: I called the manager and told him about my encounter. He wants me to come talk to him about it further but I'll admit that I'm still kind of embarrassed to go back to that store....

Top comments

I'd report her/him, they're a pharmacist, they're supposed to remain professional and helpful. They should not be working in that field if they are going to be a judgmental jerk. Even if you weren't a virgin, the reasons you take birth control is your own damn busniess.

Holy shit. That's super unethical. They should know the all the purposes of BC. I would totally file a complaint against the pharmacy. I would be so livid.

Comments

They should know that birth control isn't just for sexual purposes. I think they were just an asshat.

and even if it's used as birth control, so what? Sex is normal!

I'd report her/him, they're a pharmacist, they're supposed to remain professional and helpful. They should not be working in that field if they are going to be a judgmental jerk. Even if you weren't a virgin, the reasons you take birth control is your own damn busniess.

Oh, I don't doubt that it can be quite common, especially depending on the views and beliefs of the area, I know Tennessee can be rather conservative. I really hope OP can get this resolved and actually be heard. I don't know if they exist, but there should be some kind of independent board or organization that you can report ANY pharmacist to, remarks like this deserve harsh punishment, and in my personal opinion, I'd want their license revoked.

Would HIPPA be involved in this sort of thing? If not and she was talking loud it could be considered a breach of privacy and they could be reported.

This right here. In the US pharmacists are PREVENTED from doing this BY LAW. File a complaint ASAP.

But it's the USA. Don't pharmacists, doctors, etc., have the right to deny service if it's against their religion? It's crazy...

For the most part, no, the don't have the right to refuse. There's only 6 States that have specific laws allowing pharmacists to refuse filling prescriptions for moral/religious reasons, and even then, many major pharmacy's rules prohibit that. If you're going to work in a medical field, I think you should check your beliefs at the door, you have no right to dictate someone's life, especially in relation to their medication, it is not yours to control.

There is always the Better Business Bureau if it's an independent pharmacy. Or Yelp.

#96, please stop. you're holding back the world from progress. Absolutely everything you said was wrong. EVERYTHING.

You're right, a quick Google search shows which states explicitly have a law that allows refusal. These 6 states are, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, and South Dakota. Not one of those is Tennessee, you're wrong. And it is not better to boycott the pharmacy, you really think 1 person leaving is going to solve anything, it won't even be noticed. It's better to fix the problem, not ignore it, and if you think it's foolish to have a law against other people dictating and controlling other's lives because of what THEY believe, well progress will never be made.

You missed a huge point there, fucko. Particularly that what you cited only applies to private physicians or practitioners and their agents. Not to publicly or state owned institutions. Mic drop jk, get ******

not unless it is their own pharmacy or clinic that they own. if they only work there, they are required to follow all procedures

Plus pharmacists are required to register their biases and religious refusals to supply birth control, plan b, etc with their coworkers, employers, and state boards, and that pharmacy then must have a pharmacist willing to dispense whatever at all times. At least, that's the case in Oregon. source: I'm a pharmacy tech

Holy shit. That's super unethical. They should know the all the purposes of BC. I would totally file a complaint against the pharmacy. I would be so livid.

File a complaint. Next they are going to be shaming women for taking fertility meds, saying they aren't women enough, or shaming people for having depression because they should just suck it up. Don't people usually go into these fields of work to help people? Sorry OP, that's messed up.

Sadly that's already happening. I was told by my doctor (in MS) that he hated dealing with mental illnesses and that they weren't his problem.

Report him to his boss and whatever association makes sure pharmacists doing their job properly. That's unacceptable. He should be fired.

32- I don't know what you were trying to correct but you failed worse than his very small typo. If you're going to be pretentious and correct people at least do it properly

cootiequeen4444 11

#75 they meant "*they" as in a gender neutral term rather than 'he' for the pharmacist as the pharamist's gender was never revealed (as far as I know?). So they didn't really mess up as much as made the error of not elaborating. in any case, I would have just told to let it go regardless. so while they didn't mess up, I'm certainly not gonna give them a gold star for their attention detail. In this scenario the details don't matter and it's not blatant misgendering or whatever because the details are/were unknown. Assumptions can suck yeah but in this case it's harmless. at least this is my opinion /shrug

I actually assumed the pharmacist was female for some reason and originally put "her" but when I realized the OP didn't specify the gender I changed it to "him." I suppose I could have used "they," which I did think about doing but technically it's actually grammatically incorrect to use "they" as a gender neutral singular reference. You're really supposed to use "him or her" but that's so wordy, especially when immediately followed by "he or she." Thus I used "him" since historically masculine words have typically been used by default when a person's gender is not specified. I realize that's a bit sexist but since the pharmacist in this scenario is a big jerk it didn't really matter. Have a good evening, folks. :)

gummiworm369 4

Very unprofessional of said pharmacist. It's not their place to comment on anyone's medication.

Man, **** them. They shouldn't critisize someone they haven't even met.

It's Tennessee. That's part of the Bible belt, where religion reigns and sex is an evil no no thing. Just like Mississippi where I came from. Not surprising at all. As a medical professional, that pharmacist should be ethical and just dispense the BC and leave his personal viewpoints out of it. Is there some ethics board or something you can complain to? Because, yes, you might have gotten the birth control, but later on that pharmacist might go farther and refuse to dispense certain medications such as plan B. That's not right

He didn't say southern he said Tennessee and Mississippi. Those states are known for their backwards bullshit. Sure, there's places here in PA that are like that some...but the south is for sure much worse when it comes to being judgemental

If you take your business elsewhere without making a complaint, the store or wherever the pharmacy is in won't know and can't fix the issue

You can't say that the place that still wants to rep the Confederate flag and preach abstinence only sex Ed doesn't have more backwards conservative values.

Right, because the thousands of women who pick up their birth control every day without being judged aren't representative of Tennessee, but this one pharmacist is.

Get that bitch fired. Seriously. I bet her coworkers hate her and she does this shit all the time.