Not so long ago, women who wanted to obtain birth control faced opposition from finger-wagging doctors, druggists and clergy alike.

Eventually, the country recognized the importance of allowing patients to buy diaphragms or the pill without the interference of outside moralists.

But the impulse to control women’s health decisions has never completely gone away. Last spring, in fact, the Washington Board of Pharmacy proposed a new rule that would have allowed pharmacists to refuse to prescribe medications on moral or religious grounds. A small minority of druggists wanted that loophole to avoid dispensing emergency contraceptives.

Fortunately, Gov. Chris Gregoire, legislators and women’s groups strongly objected. And today, the board will hold a public hearing on a much wiser proposal. Members may reach a decision on Friday.

This new proposal puts the emphasis right where it should be: on the needs of patients. All of us should be able to count on having our prescriptions filled as quickly as possible.

That’s particularly important in the case of emergency contraceptives, which should be taken within 72 hours. Especially on weekends and in small towns, patients turned down by one pharmacist risk missing out on the treatment altogether.

The board’s latest set of proposed rules clearly spells out the pharmacist’s duty to fill patients’ legal prescriptions with timeliness and respect.

It rightly recognizes the important professional role played by pharmacists. They must scrutinize prescriptions to spot forgeries, to watch for potential interactions with other drugs and to catch doctors’ dosing errors.

This proposal also forbids behavior likely to strike most of the community as highly unprofessional. The new rules make it clear pharmacists may not take a patient’s prescription and tear it up or refuse to give it back, violate the patient’s privacy or otherwise harass the person. It’s amazing anyone ever found that behavior appropriate.

In the bad old days, women frequently were thwarted from making significant decisions about their own health.

This new proposal tucks that dangerous impulse firmly in the past.