Well, another successful campaign thanks to me and thousands of others. The Pill Patrol thing was kinda cool, even though I don't need emergency contraception. I donated it instead to a clinic so that someone could get it free. Which made me feel really good. Anyway, we also had a success in Iowa for health and sex education: all information given - even for abstinence only classes-must be medically accurate. So hopefully, no more lies.
Planned Parenthood Activists Nationwide Get Wal-Mart to Change Its Birth Control Policy at Pharmacies: Emergency Contraception Will Be Stocked and Dispensed Without Discrimination or Delay
Planned Parenthood’s “Fill My Pills Now” and “Pill Patrol” Campaigns Claim Another Victory for Women’s Health and Safety — and Access to Birth Control
NEW YORK CITY — In response to Planned Parenthood’s massive grassroots advocacy campaign “Fill My Pills Now,” Wal-Mart notified Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) today that it has revised its nationwide corporate policy with regard to emergency contraception. The new Wal-Mart policy ensures customers “will now receive their prescriptions or OTC products in store without discrimination (no harassment or lectures),” “without delay,” and “without judgment,” according to the Planned Parenthood survey that Wal-Mart returned to PPFA today.
“This is a huge victory for women’s health and for Planned Parenthood’s campaign for accessible birth control,” PPFA President Cecile Richards said. “We’re pleased that Wal-Mart has changed its policy to meet the real-life health care needs of women and families. Congratulations to our activists and supporters, especially our Pill Patrol, for making sure pharmacies respect and protect women’s health.
“With its new and improved policy, Wal-Mart joins other women-friendly pharmacy chains like CVS, Eckerd and Medicine Shoppe, RiteAid and Walgreens,” Richards said. “Our Planned Parenthood Pill Patrol will continue to focus on getting more major retailers to follow in Wal-Mart’s footsteps — including Target, Giant, Safeway and Winn Dixie, which have a long way to go.”
Women can always turn to Planned Parenthood for birth control — including emergency contraception — and all their reproductive health care needs. Last year, Planned Parenthood provided more than one million women with emergency contraception kits.
Birth control refusals are a disturbing trend that jeopardizes women’s health and safety. The Planned Parenthood Pill Patrol volunteers survey pharmacies about availability of emergency contraception and refusal policies.
For more information on pharmacy refusals, including a state-by-state guide to major pharmacy chains and their policies regarding access to birth control, please visit www.fillmypillsnow.org and www.plannedparenthood.org.
### Planned Parenthood Federation of America is the nation's leading sexual and reproductive health care advocate and provider. We believe that everyone has the right to choose when or whether to have a child, and that every child should be wanted and loved. Planned Parenthood affiliates operate more than 860 health centers nationwide, providing medical services and sexuality education for millions of women, men, and teenagers each year. We also work with allies worldwide to ensure that all women and men have the right and the means to meet their sexual and reproductive health care needs.
Contacts
Erin Kiernon, 202-360-1198
Andrea Hagelgans, 212-261-4652
13 comments:
I must say, I am not a huge fan of the "morning after pill." Speaking in generalistic tones here and not specifically on some cases (rape, etc), if you're too retarded not to plan ahead and take responsibility for your own actions and have a little self control, then I don't see any reason why anyone should make it easier for you to clean up your mess the next day. There are too many forms of preventative birth control out there to excuse needing something the following day. The problem with this world is not that women don't have enough choice, it's that humans in general have too much choice.
Yes, but some of the stories are more legitimate than just a simple case of retardation. Say, the condom broke (I know of at least one instance where the condom broke and someone ended up pregnant). I think of things more optimistically I guess. I don't think women will use it unless they have to. I'm not arguing that there aren't women out there who will abuse it - not using any birth control at all and then running for ec - but that the majority will use it because of emergencies. And the women who are stupid enough to just use it as their form of birth control, rather than something more in the moment, are also the ones who are risking std's and AIDS too - they must assume pregnancy is their only problem.
But whether people like it or not, it's the pharmacists JOB to dispense medications that are legal.
Maybe it's in his or her job description to dispense contraception or emergency contraception... but that shouldn't mean he/she is required to do so.
If I got a job for a radio station and my bosses told me I had to get on the radio and slander a county officials name, I would reserve the right to say "NO" because it goes against my values to do so.
Shouldn't pharmacists and doctors have the same rights?
My answer is YES.
Well, first off, your bosses probably wouldn't do that, since slander is illegal - that county official could sue. But no, I don't think pharmacists should have the freedom to tell someone that their "values" are more important or take precedent over the customers
"values." And if dispensing those medications along with others is a part of the job description than they shouldn't have taken the job. That's inability to do your job as the pharmacy wants you to do it. If you can't fulfill your job requirements in any other job, you are usually terminated, barring the exact reason of course. And if say, the pharmacist were of a religion that said no to other medications, just hypothetically, and refused a prescription say for heart medications because of his "values," would that be okay too? At one point does a person's values become the values for others and therefore for that person's actions? I know there are some religions that don't allow blood transfusions or a doctor's care for children, or transplants (I believe it's Jehovah's WItnesses, but I'm not going to be all firm about it cause I'm not sure) because it goes against their interpretation of the bible and their "values."
I think what really bothers me is that all of this controversy is over WOMENS contraception. No one is refusing to sell anyone condoms or refusing to fill a viagra prescription. At least I have never heard of such a thing.
But I guess I am sort of on the fence about a pharmacist refusing to dispense something they don't feel comfortable with. I don't think it should be a part of a company's corporate policy to refuse it, but an individual who is uncomfortable because of personal beliefs is sort of a different story.
The problem for me isn't so much that they are refusing it - it's that once someone refuses to in say, New York City, where there's a pharmacy probably, close by or in several locations-than it's okay for someone in Podunk, USA where he's the only pharmacist in town and charged with his own "values" and a mission to stop what he considers wrong. That means that they literally are unable to get it. Unlike the middle and upper class, there are women who can't afford to drive however far away, taking off work and finding childcare maybe, to get it - ESPECIALLY considering that the timing of it is really important - it's most effective immediately and after only 72 hours that effectiveness goes down to pretty much nothing. So there's a time constraint as well. But in any case, if someone has a problem with dispensing medication of some sort, than they probably should have chosen a different job. Where do we draw that line? If one of us said we couldn't lend money and we worked at a bank, do you think our "values" would be so praised?
And I don't really disagree with you, I am just trying to see the other side of the argument. Besides it is over the counter now, right? So no one should be able to refuse to sell it to anyone who chooses to use it, anymore then they can refuse to sell other types of over the counter birth control. If they do then they are kind of a hypocrite.
I hope it's not over the counter. That would be crazy. If the pill isnt over the counter, the morning after pill shouldnt be.
I personally agree with Kay. There are too many forms of birth control out there for the morning after pill and abortions to be necessary except in extreme cases. If you are out there having sex, you know what the risks are and you are voluntarily taking them.
Going by your logic, Katie, if pharmacists should be forced to dispense emergency contraception or they shouldn't be pharmacists... then doctors should be forced to perform abortions or they shouldn't have become doctors, right?
I personally can't imagine a doctor becoming a doctor solely for the reason of ending human life. Isn't that sort of the opposite of what doctors are there for?
The difference is that doctors choose what specialty they want to practice medicine in, so of course they shouldn't be forced to practice abortions unless that is their chosen field. Pharmacists, however, don't really have the luxury of picking and choosing the drugs they distribute so the comparison isn't really fair.
Thanks Ramee! That's what I was going to say. And again, I understand your points Kay and Sara - there ARE a lot of different protections out there. But if your condom breaks it's good to have options. And yes, EC is sold in pharmacies OTC - or rather, you have to ask the pharmacist, it's not just sold out there like bandaids or anything, which is why it's a big deal when pharmacists refuse (and you also have to be 18 to buy it, so you have to show them id) Oh and on a note about the doctors comment - most doctors who provide abortion are actually OB-GYNS not just specializing in abortion but in women's gynecological health...and even then they can refuse or not refuse to do abortions because it's not a field in and of itself it's part of gynecology and obstetrics. And also, everyone needs help. If you are stupid one night and make the mistake of having sex without protection, than I think yeah, help them because everyone makes mistakes and it's judgmental to think that they don't. You're actually the one making the decision to buy and use the EC and therefore trying to correct the mistake, so to speak. If people are stupid and eat fried foods every day of their life and then have a heart attack, is it right to deny them the medications to fix it later, once they realize their mistakes?
I would like to point out that having heart surgery repairs your heart. Having an abortion kills your baby. There is a difference.
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