A prescription for trouble

SMU doctor wouldn't prescribe Morning After pill to student after being raped

By Allison Denman
Contributing writer
May 02, 2005

Last fall, Lacy, a student at SMU, was raped. The next day, she went to the SMU Memorial Health Center and asked for emergency contraception - often called the "morning-after pill" - to avoid getting pregnant.

However, Lacy, who has asked to remain anonymous, said Dr. Shannon Sims, a doctor at the center, refused to write a prescription for the pill. Lacy, a junior, said Sims told her she did not write prescriptions for the morning-after pill - also known as the Plan B method - because of her religious beliefs.

According to Lacy, Dr. Sims told her, " 'Read between the lines, I'm Catholic, so I don't believe in the Plan B method, so therefore, I have the right to refuse to write the prescription.' "

...

Lacy said she met with Sims, but she refused to fill the prescription. Tehan, Sims' nurse, suggested Lacy meet with another doctor at the Health Center to get the morning-after pill. Lacy did but said the experience was difficult. The second doctor asked her the same questions as Sims. Finally, the doctor wrote the prescription, and Lacy got it filled at the Walgreen's at Mockingbird and Greenville Avenue.

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Now ... wait a second. This doctor had a choice here.

1. She could have said something like "I'm sorry. I can't prescribe this to you, but here are some people who can."
or
2. She could have been a complete ass about it and made the poor girl feel even worse about everything.

Obviously, she chose the second of those two major options, and I am very much of the opinion that she should be fired because of it. That last paragraph I quoted made it sound like the doctor didn't even give "Lacy" a list of the doctors who would help her or any other information. It was the nurse who did that.

This is just infuriating.