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.

[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

[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.

[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 ...?

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

No WalMart... No Target...

So what's LEFT?

[jedilora.livejournal.com]

Not for general shopping things. I go to CVS or Walgreens for pharmacy things that aren't perpetual refills, and the rest are ordered via mail.

[delayra.livejournal.com]

Walgreens, Eckerd, CVS, Rite-Aid

[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/).

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

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

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

Problem is, I don't use Target for a pharmacy. I use them for general goods, groceries, and electronics. The alternatives involve higher prices, which isn't good, or WalMart, which is completely unacceptable.

[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]

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.

[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.

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>

[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.

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.

[anneb.livejournal.com]

While this example is ugly, on the whole, I want the pharmacist to refuse combinations of meds that might be fatal to me, and I say that 'cause it happened once- until I let her know that I wasn't actually TAKING the Seldane any more, so the potentially fatal reaction with Erythromycin wasn't an issue. She wanted to make sure my doctor had been paying attention. The pharmacist is usually where everything coming from multiple doctors comes together, and when those doctors don't communicate, you can get really nasty problems. I don't think that pharmacist would have been acting ethically if she blindly filled that Rx, and I ran a non-zero risk of my heart just deciding to stop. When people die because they've had a bad mix of drugs, the pharmacist is often the first one people want to hold liable.

So we allow those ethics to block pharmacists from doing harm, and then they have to come to decisions on the morning after pill. That sounds like a hell of a messy job, drawing the line between should and shouldn't.

Even so, I really hope that the final numbers tend towards only a few pharmacists having the objection, and it being moot most of the time. Target pharmacy does enough stuff /right/ where other pharmacies in my area don't. (let's have an argument with the pharmacy staff whether the cashier checking 'no safety caps' without consulting me overrides my 'SAFETY CAPS OR ELSE' note on my computer record, shall we?).

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.

[catlin.livejournal.com]

Trouble is, this is not a saftey issue. This is a Moral one. They are blocking it because they are convinced that it is an abortion aide, rather than an attempt not to concieve.

[anneb.livejournal.com]

I suspect we agree on that point, but the reality is, someone who's going to deny contraceptive because it's murder is very likely to argue that saving my life from a "wrong prescription" and saving the baby's life from "a wrong prescription" are very similar, indeed.

And if they don't believe so now, if we define the decision point as "safety" vs "morality," they sure as heck will adopt that position post haste. Or maybe that's just me being cynical.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

So do I. ARRRGGH!!!

[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.

[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.

[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.