Gift of Life wants to develop app ‘shaming’ pharmacists stocking morning-after pill

Unhappy with parliament’s decision allowing the Medicines Authority to decide whether the emergency contraceptive pill should be available in Malta, the Gift of Life Foundation has now moved to name and shame pharmacies that stock the morning-after pill.

After months of debate, parliament decided that the Medicines Authority was the country’s competent body to decide on the sale or otherwise of medicinal products. The Medicines Authority has approved the over-the-counter sale of the morning-after pill. The decision on which type of pills will be made available is based on their mode of action and whether they’re in line with Maltese legislation.

Taking matters in their own hands, the pro-lifers announced that they were planning to develop an app promoting “pro-life” pharmacies.

The Gift of Life's message as posted on Facebook

On Facebook, Gift of Life urged its followers to help it develop the app by contacting their pharmacists and asking them whether or not they will be stocking the emergency contraceptive. The information – listing the name of the pharmacy and location – would then be passed on to Gift of Life to build its database.

By dubbing the pharmacies which will not stock the contraceptive as “pro-life pharmacies”, Gift of Life would be effectively adopting a name-and-shame approach against those which do. At the same time, it would be encouraging consumers against visiting pharmacies which stock the emergency contraceptive.

The Chamber of Pharmacists deplored the setting up of such “discriminatory applications”, with the chamber’s president, Mary Ann Sant Fournier, describing the action as being “in direct breach of the pharmacy profession’s ethics”.

“Pharmacies are premises that offer health care services and are managed by pharmacists who are independent health care professionals. In the context of the Emergency Contraception preparations, pharmacists will offer their services according to prescribed guidelines,” Sant Fournier told MaltaToday.

Sant Fournier went on to add that, as free and independent professionals, pharmacists may opt to conscientiously object to dispense these products.

“However, the Chamber shall not accept that there be any coercion by any individual or entity or organisation or interference in the practice of pharmacists in this or any other regard.”