My mother is a practicing pharmacist, and I asked her once about this thing of US pharmacists refusing to dispense contraceptives because of their beliefs. I asked her if she could or would ever refuse to dispense because of her beliefs (she's Catholic).
She looked at me like I had two heads, and when I said I was actually serious, she said no, under no circumstances could she ever refuse to dispense medication for personal reasons. They can refuse if they don't have the medicine in stock, or if they have reason to believe the prescription is a fake, or if the customer is being abusive.
She made a good point then - if she was going to refuse because of religious beliefs, where would you draw the line? At contraception? Stop selling condoms? What if she refused to dispense to homosexuals, Wiccans, or any person that her religion disapproves of? She said, and rightly so, that a prescription showed that a qualified doctor had seen someone and decided they needed medication - a pharmacist should not and cannot make that decision after the fact. In Ireland, in case you don't know, we have a drugs scheme where expensive and life-saving drugs are available to people who might not be able to afford them, because they only pay a small set amount and the government pays the rest.
A pharmacist who refuses to dispense on religious grounds is being unneccessarily cruel and indifferent to the needs of others.
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