Contraceptive sales - Pharmacists’ attitudes add to problems

SHAMEFUL echoes of an uncaring Ireland are redolent in the disappointment voiced by Olive Braiden, chairperson of the Crisis Pregnancy Agency (CPA), who has revealed that some pharmacists refuse to sell contraceptives or the morning-after-pill because they disapprove of their use.

Smacking of Irish-style fundamentalism, the attitude of an unknown number of pharmacists, including some in Dublin, is a bleak reminder of an era when pregnant girls were shunned by society.

In this day and age, however, when condoms are widely available in pubs, clubs, family planning centres, supermarkets and even at the corner shop, it is incredible that professionals operating in the front line of public healthcare are refusing to provide customers with the most basic methods of preventing unwanted pregnancies.