Chantal Barry, a doctor at the Westglen Medical Center in Calgary, Canada does not prescribe contraception to patients while she is on duty.

A sign at the facility’s front desk reads, “The physician on duty today will not prescribe the birth control pill.”

According to the receptionist at the clinic, this policy at Westglen Medical Center is based on Barry’s moral preferences. Reportedly, patients seeking birth control pills are given a list of the other medical centers in the city that prescribe them. At Westglen, there is only one doctor for walk-in patients at a time.

“I was shocked and outraged. I don’t think her belief system should have any part in my reproductive health,” said 45-year-old Joan Chand’oiseau who noticed the sign while attending an appointment with her gynecologist on June 24th.

Chand’oiseau instantly uploaded an image of the sign on Facebook that received angry responses from many of her friends.

Pam Krause, CEO and president of Calgary Sexual Health Center, said she knows of doctors who object to making abortion referrals on moral grounds but refusing the prescription of birth control pills is literally unheard of in the whole of Alberta. She believes personal beliefs must be kept aside from professional responsibilities, adding that birth control pills are among the most highly demanded prescription drugs.

“This is something you find in really conservative places in the U.S. It just does not seem acceptable to me because in a way you’re refusing care. If somebody has that strong of values and they really can’t do that, it should be set up so that they have to refer to somebody else right away who can do it,” she said.

According to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta’s policy on Moral or Religious Beliefs Affecting Medical Care, doctors may deny medical services to patients but they must also ensure that the patients receive timely access to the same services from a different practitioner. Trevor Theman, registrar at CPSA said the policy allows Westglen not to have a doctor on duty who will prescribe birth control pills to patients. However, he did not define ‘timely’ saying that a delay in receiving birth control pills will not disadvantage a patient in a serious way.

“There’s a degree of urgency, but it’s not like life or death today kind of urgency. In an ideal world, women who need birth control or are seeking birth control will have a regular doctor and won’t just be dropping into a walk-in clinic to get a prescription for birth control pills,” he said, adding most women should be seeing a family doctor about their sexual health needs.

In reality however, close to 200,000 people in Calgary do not have a family doctor and depend on walk-in clinics to cater to their medical needs.

“People would have them if they could, but they’re just not available,” said Krause, who called the CPSA’s response ridiculous.

Ronald Lim, owner of Westglen Medical Centre, was not available for comments.