LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY shapeshft)

In light of the recent "Is your Doctor playing Judge?" thread, and the suggestion that there should be a list of doctors who will or won't provide adequate medical care:

When I was living in rural Virginia, I noticed that some Christian groups or individuals had banded together to create a Christian "resource directory" booklet which could be found and taken home free in a number of area businesses and churches. (Type "Christian resource directory" into Google and you'll find a number of similar online directories.) This gave Christians in the area the ability to make sure that all their money went to other Christian individuals and companies, and they could live their whole lives without darkening the door of any establishment unsupportive of their fundamentalist views.

The flip side of that is that anybody wanting to avoid such businesses had a handy directory of places NOT to go. Anybody on this list living in an area where these directories are being produced could use these as exactly this sort of handy reference tool, although in the case of medical care, there may well be doctors not listed who still nevertheless refuse to prescribe treatment.

If a group were to get together to create lists of medical providers and pharmacists that support full reproductive health care, that might be a double-edged sword. It could indeed provide individuals with a helpful guide of who will give them adequate care or not, but it could also be used by militant Christians to harass doctors that provide this care, pharmacists who fulfill prescriptions, etc. Same with business listings; I have seen and heard of a number of businesses that have been bankrupted by boycotts after some Christian group got wind that the owner of the store believed or did something they regarded as "evil." Not all of these incidents occurred in the South, either; a few occurred nearby where I live now in rural New York state. A home decor store owned by a spiritualist was one such instance.

In essence, I'm torn between wanting to create such lists, and fearing for what may happen to people and businesses that list themselves there. Perhaps whether this is a good idea or not depends on the area.

I'm interested in any ideas people have regarding this.