Again, it all depends on your state and the specific policies the pharmacy has in place, says Natalie DiPietro Mager , PharmD, MPH, associate professor of pharmacy practice at Ohio Northern University. If a pharmacist chooses not to fill your prescription, they typically will transfer the prescription to another pharmacist who can fill it, which is what happened to Arteaga. Or if there are no other pharmacists available (because there's only one pharmacist on call, for example), then they are may refer you to another pharmacy. In some cases, your pharmacist can refuse to provide contraception without taking further action , according to the ACLU. If you're in a bind, you may want to call your prescriber or an on-call doctor, Dr. Mager says.