A 14-year-old girl, who relies on medication for her arthritis, could not get her medicine on time because a Walgreens in Tucson, Arizona refused to refill her bottle. They denied her the refill under the assumption that some women abuse the drug by using it to induce an abortion, an act outlawed by the state just days before.
Emma Thompson, 14, has rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis, and has been on methotrexate for several years. The drug helps her manage the pain and symptoms caused by her condition.
The law prohibiting abortion was enacted on September 24, and the medication was banned based on evidence that people can use it to abort ectopic pregnancies. The law will also punish all parties responsible for aiding abortions, including pharmacies.
Emma was denied her medication two days after a judge passed the law on September 26. Her doctor was angry about the ordeal and tweeted how her adolescent patient was denied her life-saving medication.
Dr. Deborah Jane Power told a news outlet that the child’s condition had taken a toll on her and that it had been years before she could finally manage her pain and physically go to school. She raised concerns about what she called the pharmacist’s “selfish” reasons for denying Emma her prescription.
Twenty-four hours after the incident, and the resulting uproar, Walgreens agreed to refill her prescription medication, blaming various abortion laws enacted after the Roe v. Wade ruling earlier this year.
Emma’s mother, Kaitlin Preble, was petrified when she heard that her daughter had been denied her medication. She said she cried because she worried about her daughter’s life. The medication made her daughter have a normal teenage life, attend school and stay out of the hospital, which she would not be able to do if they took her off the medication.
Preble was elated that her daughter had finally made friends, stopped using her wheelchair, and had a normal social life.
The American College of Rheumatology recommended that pharmacists and medical professionals should not refuse methotrexate prescriptions, and should not assume that the medication will be used to induce abortion.
Arizona joined many other southern states in enacting the abortion ban laws which are related to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The abortion ban in Arizona allows a woman to terminate her pregnancy only if she is at serious medical risk.
Immediately after Roe v. Wade was overturned, Arizona’s 1864 law on abortion was triggered, but pro-choice activists quickly sought an injunction.
Yes, you read that right – 1864. As a territory, before it became a state in 1912, Arizona originally banned abortion in 1864, and although Roe v. Wade made it unenforceable, it has still remained on the books.
Judge Kellie Johnson of the Pima County Superior court decided to lift the injunction after hearing arguments in the case by Mark Brnovich, a Republican Attorney General. The near-total ban gives no exception for rape or incest. If any Arizona woman gets pregnant under these unfavorable conditions, she will have to travel out of state to seek an abortion or carry the pregnancy to term.
Judge Kelly’s decision to revive the abortion ban from the 19th century was followed by state-wide protests by women and human rights groups.