LACONIA - When Suzanne Richards went to a drive-through Brooks pharmacy on a recent Saturday night, an assistant told her the pharmacist could not fill her prescription for the morning-after pill.

When Richards told the assistant she had gotten the prescription filled at there before, pharmacist Todd Sklencar came to the window and told her he was morally opposed to prescribing something that could end a life, Richards said.

Sklencar then told her to transfer the prescription to another pharmacy.

"He said something like, 'I believe this will end the fertilization of the egg and this conception was your choice,'" Richards told Foster's Sunday Citizen.

"I'm a single mother, and I'm just trying to be responsible," she said. "When I realized what he was saying, I pulled the car over in the parking lot and just cried."

Richards returned to the pharmacy later that night with her father, but Sklencar once again refused to fill the prescription and did not tell her where she could get it filled, she said.

On Tuesday, another Brooks pharmacist contacted her, told her he had just been transferred to the Union Avenue store and said she could pick up her prescription.

By then it was too late. The pills must be taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex to prevent ovulation or fertilization of an egg, or to prevent a fertilized egg from implanting into the uterus - the medical definition of pregnancy.

"He said I was irresponsible. Well, I think it's irresponsible to have kids you can't take care of and raise," said Richards, a 21-year-old single mother.

Sklencar could not be reached for comment. Co-workers said he was on vacation, and he has no home telephone listing. Managers at the Brooks Pharmacy and at Brooks' corporate headquarters in Warwick, R.I., refused to comment.

Many anti-abortion groups believe pregnancy begins with fertilization and say dispensing emergency contraceptives is equivalent to performing an abortion.

Some pharmacists refuse to dispense birth control pills for similar reasons. Sklencar did fill Richards'prescription for a birth control patch, however.

Jenny Thalheimer, spokeswoman for the National Organization for Women's New Hampshire chapter, said the group opposes so-called "conscience clauses" that allow pharmacists to decide whether or not to fill birth control and emergency contraception prescriptions.

"A woman should have the right to make decisions concerning her own body - no one else," she said.

Many states, including New Hampshire, allow pharmacists to refuse to fill a prescription for any reason, including their personal religious beliefs. However, they should direct the patient to someone who will help them, said Paul Boisseau, executive director of the New Hampshire Board of Pharmacy.

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