A 14-year-old girl from Tucson, Arizona, was denied lifesaving rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis medication that can terminate a pregnancy due to the state’s abortion ban even though she wasn’t pregnant.
Emma Thompson could not get methotrexate (MTX), a drug she had been taking for years, only days after the state’s abortion law had taken into effect.
But Emma wasn’t pregnant and her doctor argued that she was denied the medication because she’s a female.
Dr. Deborah Jane Power took to Twitter and wrote: “Welcome to AZ. Today a pharmacist denied the MTX refill for my adolescent patient… MTX denied purely because she’s a female, barely a teenager.”
Speaking to KOLD News 13, she said: “This child’s care has taken a lot to get her to a place that her pain is totally manageable [and] she can attend school in person.
“My concern was that the pharmacist chose to not refill because methotrexate could be used to cause an abortion and then the pharmacist would be held responsible.”
Walgreens pharmacy later administered the medication and put the blame on trigger laws in many different states.
A spokesperson said to Daily Mail: “Trigger laws in various states require additional steps for dispensing certain prescriptions and apply to all pharmacies, including Walgreens.”
Thompson’s mother Kaitlin Preble was shocked and scared when she found out about the delay in her daughter’s prescription.
Preble told KOLD News 13: “As a mother who has had to deal with my child being very ill most of her life, I was scared, I was really worried. I was shaking. I was in tears. I didn’t know what to do.”
MTX at higher doses can be used to end ectopic pregnancies, where a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus.
Arizona’s abortion ban came following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June.
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