Boycott Target

[filkertom]

Boy, I hate this one, because I do very much enjoy shopping at Target. But they're backing their superstitious asshats pharmacists who don't want to dispense Plan B emergency contraceptives. So, as of right now, I don't shop at Target.

Tell your friends.

Comments

[jedilora.livejournal.com]

Damnit.

My only other option around here is Wal-mart, which is even worse.

[delayra.livejournal.com]

Wal Mart pharmacies have a lot of really bad practices, yes... but there's no others in your area? Walgreens, or Eckerd, or ...?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Wal-mart, which is even worse

Infinately. Target has previously been praised for not allowing its pharmacists to refuse the regular pill; Wal-Mart, on the other hand, brags about putting its pharmacists' feelings before its customers' needs.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Hm. Target here has no pharmacy.

Nonetheless, suckage. Letter-writing is, I think, in order.

[delayra.livejournal.com]

Heard about this about a week ago. Apparently, there are some Target pharmacists that have refused to dispense BIRTH CONTROL pills, as well, citing that it "kills babies" -- they should be better educated if they're gonna be a pharmacist, in my opinion, as it prevents pregnancy instead of ending it -- and they've gotten away with it

I have a friend that is a virgin, 27 years old, and has used birth control pills since she was 13 as a regulatory agent for her menstrual cycle. What if it was her? Would they still refuse? This entire thing sickens me

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I know at least two women who specifically take birth control pills to keep from bleeding excessively every cycle. Not to mention the myriad other circumstances that could be twisted by this: Should women not get pain medication while pregnant because they're supposed to suffer, as it says in Genesis 3:16 (http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/gen/3.html#16)? Would HIV positive patients not be able to get medication (or, for that matter, condoms) because AIDS is God's way of punishing homosexuals? (If so, God's a shitty shot.) If you can't get emergency contraception for a rape victim, does that mean rape is now sanctified? Etc. etc. etc.

[ash-blackwell.livejournal.com]

Tell me about it.... my cousin (a 33 year old virgin) takes birth control to keep an ovarian cyst under control. Without it, the cyst would likely be the size of a grapefruit rather than just the size of a ping pong ball. I personally take Depo because it gives me a cycle every three months vs the year and a half I go between otherwise.

Thankfully, Target has no problem giving us our meds. If our pharmacist did, I could probably tell Target's insurance provider that they have to cover a more expensive procedure because a fellow employee wouldn't allow me to follow my doctor's orders and the pressure would come to bear pretty quickly in that case, but I have to admit most people don't have that option.

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

Alas, if it were just Target that was doing this, a boycott might be effective, but many chains are allowing the same thing.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Some of it appears to be a policy of the American Pharmacists Association (http://www.aphanet.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home).

Also, Planned Parenthood has more info at their site, FillMyPillsNow.com (http://www.saveroe.com/fillmypillsnow/).

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

No WalMart... No Target...

So what's LEFT?

[delayra.livejournal.com]

Walgreens, Eckerd, CVS, Rite-Aid

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

And independent stores, of which there are still a good number.

[ash-blackwell.livejournal.com]

The difficulty is that we really need to get something organized to deal with this at the federal level. Without a federal blanket over this, there will /always/ be women without the ablity to get proper care when it comes to proscriptions of any kind that the "moral right" disagrees with.

I work at Target, and with the discount I get on top of my coverage, I can't afford to /not/ get my 'scripts filled there. But to show the other side of even Target (which I freely admit can be very evil), my pharmacist not only will give you birth control, but when I told him that my doctor had told me there was now a generic for Depo-Provera, he forcibly overrode the computer in the pharmacy when it told him that it didn't exist in order to offer it for me.

[aylinn.livejournal.com]

Individual pharmacists are usually pretty good. It sounds like you've got a proper one there. Keep him, he's golden.

It's when you get one that lets their personal ethics override their professional ethics that the problems start.

stipulation: personal ethics being derived from personal beliefs & professional ethics being derived from commonly accepted professional codes/standards of behavior.

And I do have to say that I really think the new Target bottling standards will eventually spread through the industry. but it will be a while before you see them at local independents unless they've got a good steady clientele.

Soapbox warning!

[aylinn.livejournal.com]

FYI, as someone who used to work with independent pharmacists...

ALWAYS, ALWAYS go to independent pharmacies before going to chain stores. If you must go to a "chain" try your local grocery stores first before the major chains. then hit places like CVS & such before going to wal-mart, target & costco.

why? short form:

drug companies advertise their "average wholesale price" so that drug ditributors can set their markup. The catch is that INSURANCE COMPANIES also get those price lists. They use them to set the amount they pay the pharmacy for filling the script.

The problem occurs when x distributor says to the pharmacy "your drugs cost AWP-5%" and the insurance company says "Whatever. we're only PAYING you AWP-15% plus a $2 filling fee." The pharmacy had better hope that that $2 covers a lot of overhead.

Needless to say, chains have clout & can dictate terms to both insurance companies & drug distributors. Independents don't.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL PHARMACY!

oh, and if you have to use mail order? try & get the meds from the same state. otherwise you can't guarantee the same laws governing dispensing will apply.

This is why you see lots of local pharmacies in states that have good strong medicaid reimbursement programs (New York for example) & very few in states that don't. (Maryland for example) They LIVE off the constant medicaid fund flow. I could go on but I'm resisting the urge.

<exits kicking soapbox out from under her>

on the subject of boycotts

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

You might want to check out what Sony's been doing to their customers recently (http://www.livejournal.com/users/jrtom/111646.html). Installing spyware on their music CD customers' computers, for starters...and it goes downhill from there.

Re: on the subject of boycotts

[louisadkins.livejournal.com]

This is why Sony/BMG Music is not currently receiving any more of my money, if at all possible. Any Sony/BMG CDs I decide that I want to own I will either get through Rhapsody (or equiv.) or I will buy through a used CD store. I don't trust them.

[samanfur.livejournal.com]

Here in the UK, a pharmacist has legal protection even if the objection is purely moral, rather than for specifically religious reasons.

Given the subjectivity involved in that, the mind boggles. But there've still been a few cases in the papers recently.

[hsifyppah.livejournal.com]

I like the approach in Canada (or at least my province, BC) better - pharmacists can refuse to fill a prescription for moral reasons BUT then it's their job to find a pharmacist who WILL fill the prescription for the patient, so that no patient has to walk away without their meds just because the pharmacist disagrees with them on a moral issue. If it's a small town and they're the only pharmacist, then tough beans, they have to fill it, since the patient's right to access to their legal medications overrides the pharmacist's personal discomfort.

I figure if it's too traumatic to fill scrips for legally available drugs, that person should choose a job other than pharmacist. It's like a vegetarian taking a job in a slaughterhouse and refusing to do the parts that involve killing animals - time to go back to the career counsellor, y'know?

Patient autonomy is a big deal in this profession - you'll find it listed as a core value in most regulatory colleges' codes of ethics. My job as a pharmacist isn't to think for the patient - it's to be a drug expert who can help /them/ make informed choices about their health care. (heh, or well my /future/ job as a pharmacist... still plugging away in pharmacy school.)

[pixel.livejournal.com]

"Bah, I thoght Target was the good guys. Letter written."

I am ashamed of Target and their decision to allow their pharmacists to refuse to sell Plan B emergency contraceptives for 'religious reasons'. A pharmacists job is to dispense the medication a doctor prescibes, NOT to decide what medication a customer can and can not have.
Your website says in the 'diversity' section: "Target sees diversity as any trait that makes someone unique and does not interfere with effective job performance." It would seem though that no being able to fill a customer's order, and forcing that customer to hunt around for a store which will falls under "interfere(ing) with effective job performance", and therefore attempts to defend the actions of your pharmacists this was is put to lie by your own definition of diversity.
In addition denying your female customers their basic right to the medical treatment prescribed to them by their doctors amounts to discrimination. And discrimination in any form is a disgusting and terrible thing for any person, business, religious group, nation or corporation to do.
For this reason I will be boycotting Target stores for the forseeable future. I have in the past been in your stores more than once a week and considered them my favorite place to shop. I will now be taking my business elsewhere, including all of my holiday shopping.
I hope Target reconsiders their stance on this issue and puts the medical needs of their customers before the religious intolerance of, a hopefully very small group of, their employees.

[name]

P.S. I am male, and while this issue does not affect my access to medication, the idea that a female family member, patner or friend would be denied their basic medical rights disgusts me.

[madmanotl.livejournal.com]

Not every birth control medication is used for prevention. Some people are prescribed it for cycle maintenance. Any pharmacist which refuses to distribute prescribed medication because of their morality should get out of the profession.
Not every person shares the same beliefs. When a person is employed, that person needs to share the beliefs of their employer while at work as it matters to the job at hand even if it disagrees with their own personal opinion.

[indyellen.livejournal.com]

Well, CRAP! I get my prescriptions elsewhere, but I already don't shop at Wal-Mart (unless I have no other choice) so that's two stores down. :(

I hope no one's heard anything bad about Meijer...they're becoming my only option for general merchandise/superstores. But no, I now will not shop at Target, either.

As a side note, I already know people who are "Christian" (I have nothing against Christians in general, I'm using the term this way to specifically refer to the ultra-judgemental types who are hypocritical) who won't shop at Target because they don't allow the Salvation Army bellringers in front of their stores. Target keeps this up, they're going to get boycotted on BOTH sides of issues.

[wwetuesday.livejournal.com]

I'm already boycotting Target for not allowing the Salvation Army bell-ringers infront of their stores during the hollidays.

Just fuel to the fire for me.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I'd want to shop at Target specifically for not allowing Salvation Army bell-ringers. Not because I don't approve of the Salvation Army; just because the noise of the bells drives me freakin' bats.

[susan-peri.livejournal.com]

Referring to some of the comments -

I think Preven should be easily available, but I support Target's right to stock what they choose. They claim they don't stock Preven for business reasons, and I can sort of see that. How much demand is there for it? And do they stock RU486? Anyone know?

As far as I know, Target is not denying birth control medication other than Preven to anyone If you need contraceptives, you can get them.

Also remember that according to Scopes, this policy was announced in 1999. http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/walmart.htm

Did you know Target also refuses to stock guns and ammunition?

As far as the Salvation Army, we've run into a similiar problem at the Public Library I work for. We used to let the Girl Scouts come in once a year. But then a ruling was passed that if they were allowed to sell something we had to allow in any group that wanted to sell. I think Target ran into a similar problem -- they had nothing against Salvation Army, but they didn't want customers to have to walk through a gauntlet of charities all with their hands out.

[alicetheowl.livejournal.com]

Someone on a community I'm on wrote them a letter, and got a response:

Dear Target Guest

In our ongoing effort to provide great service to our guests, Target consistently ensures that prescriptions for the emergency contraceptive Plan B are filled. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 also requires us to accommodate our team members’ sincerely held religious beliefs.

In the rare event that a pharmacist’s beliefs conflict with filling a guest’s prescription for the emergency contraceptive Plan B, our policy requires our pharmacists to take responsibility for ensuring that the guest’s prescription is filled in a timely and respectful manner, either by another Target pharmacist or a different pharmacy.

The emergency contraceptive Plan B is the only medication for which this policy applies.
Under no circumstances can the pharmacist prevent the prescription from being filled, make discourteous or judgmental remarks, or discuss his or her religious beliefs with the guest.

Target abides by all state and local laws and, in the event that other laws conflict with our policy, we follow the law.

We're surprised and disappointed by Planned Parenthood’s negative campaign. We’ve been talking with Planned Parenthood to clarify our policy and reinforce our commitment to ensuring that our guests’ prescriptions for the emergency contraceptive Plan B are filled. Our policy is similar to that of many other retailers and follows the recommendations of the American Pharmacists Association. That’s why it’s unclear why Target is being singled out.

We’re committed to meeting the needs of our female guests and will continue to deliver upon that commitment.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Hanson
Target Executive Offices