One State At A Time, If Necessary

[filkertom]

At last, a little rationality:

The state board that oversees pharmacies voted Tuesday to require Wal-Mart to stock emergency contraception pills at its Massachusetts pharmacies, a spokeswoman at the Department of Public Health said.

The unanimous decision by the Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy comes two weeks after three women sued Wal-Mart in state court for failing to carry the so called "morning after" pill in its Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores in the state.

The women argue state policy requires pharmacies to provide all "commonly prescribed medicines."

Again and again and again: This is not the decision of the religious. This is not the decision of the husband/boyfriend/whatever. This is not the decision of the corporation. It damn sure isn't the decision of the pharmacist. It is the decision of the woman, made with the advice of her doctor. End of story. It may take these one-at-a-time battles, but the war for privacy and women's health must be fought and won.

Cross-posted to Mandate, My Ass.

Comments

[darthparadox.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

Massachusetts is really good about these things in general - no wonder the conservatives hate the entire state so much.

Alright, everyone. Who's going to take the next step for women's rights? (It sounds silly - we were supposed to have "women's rights" eighty years ago, at least - but that's the battle we're fighting now...)

[mrteapot.livejournal.com]

I liked the way the Daily Show framed the terms of the debate:

"How dare they [the lawmakers] force their moral judgements upon you [the pharmacist]! You're supposed to be forcing your moral judgements upon her!"

[barbara-the-w.livejournal.com]

The Daily Show is the only reason I might regret not having television....

[mrteapot.livejournal.com]

I went through the same story for a while. The Daily Show Website (http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/videos/headlines/index.jhtml) helped greatly, as they have much of the show online the day after it airs.

[aylinn.livejournal.com]

BAN-FRICKIN'-ZAI!

Of course, just 'cause they have to stock them, doesn't mean they have to provide access to 'em.

Just wait "Oh-I'm-SORREE, the person with the key to that cabinet is off right now...." with the unspoken part being "yeah & won't be back till YOU leave, you 'murderess' you."

*looks down at the soapbox sneaking under her feet again*

*firmly deletes the rest of the snarky rant & jumps OFF said soapbox*

Sorry 'bout that.

[unkbar.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I like the idea of the gummint telling any merchant that he has to sell a particular item. It shouldn't be necessary in a functioning market economy. Certainly there is no lack of pharmacies - seems I can't drive a mile without passing another Rite-Aid or Walgreen, and all he grocery stores and big-box discount stores have 'em. There are even a few old-fashioned storefront pharmacies left. If there's a demand for the product, and people are willing to pay a fair price, a supply will appear.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Not a matter of a "functioning market economy". It's a matter of certain religious types deciding that a certain type of medical procedure is evil/wrong/whatever and denying women who have a legal right to that procedure the prescribed tools to carry it out. It's not just individual pharmacists anymore -- it's corporations, it's state pharmaceutical agencies. It's wrong. It interferes with a legal medical procedure and the doctor-patient relationship.

And none of these jerkwads have any problems selling Viagra.

[catlin.livejournal.com]

That is great in your community, or even in my city, but there are an awful lot of small towns still where there may only Be one pharmacy. A womay may not be able to get to another pharmacy easily. What if her car is not in good enough shape to drive to another town to get medicine? or if she does so, and that pharmacy also denies it, and the next after that?

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

There are also (admittedly anecdotal) reports of pharmacists not only refusing to fill the scrip, but also refusing to return the prescription form so the woman can try somewhere else.

[ladypoetess.livejournal.com]

Technically, they do carry it. Most EC prescriptions are filled with conventional birth control pills, with specific instructions on how many to take for the pills to work as EC, and not standard BC.

The Walmart policy, while not a good one by any means, is at least better than Target. With Walmart, you are told from the beginning that they don't fill EC prescriptions - Planned Parenthood, the online websites you can get EC prescribed from, etc., all tell you from the start not to send the prescription to Walmart because they don't fill them. Unlike Target, where it is a game of Russian roulette whether or not you'll get a pharmacist who has "moral objections" to filling EC.

I don't like either company's policy on emergency contraception, but at least with Walmart you get a straight answer from the beginning and not some sick game of maybe we will/maybe we won't.

[cogitationitis.livejournal.com]

They will get one package drop-shipped this week with their regualr order. And that's it. There will be no pressure to reorder (though, technically, the computer does that). No pressure to keep it constantly in stock. No pressure to keep more than one on the shelf, so when the first one sells, the pharmacist can say, "We're out of stock." And no way for the consumer to know whether or not the pharmacist is lying when she or he says such a thing.

It's a meaningless, toothless law, and the Board knows it--it's more a political move than a practical one.

On the other hand, when you dispense a Plan B script with *refills*--well, you gotta wonder.

[ororo.livejournal.com]

It's a start. I still see lots of ways a pharmacist will be able to get around the law.

Unfortunately, I think it's going to take the almighty dollar, as in people moving their scrips from Wal-Mart and Target en masse to really make an impact on the corporations' policy.

Meanwhile, I get all my scrips filled at CVS.

[delayra.livejournal.com]

And then there's the states taking a flying leap backwards, like Ohio

http://dpva.livejournal.com/151597.html

Proposed law making it illegal for anyone that is homosexual, bisexual, or transgender to adopt. At all

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

I agree, this is a good thing.

The last thing the world needs is for Wal•Mart shoppers to be reproducing.

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

It's a bigger issue than just Plan B. What if pharmacists stop selling AIDs/STD medication based on moral objection? Or refuse to fill prescriptions for newer antibiotics because they believe it's impossible for bacteria to evolve into resistant strains? Or they decide that selling drugs to anyone dark skinned is unpatriotic? What the religious right wants is the ability to force pharmacies to stop providing any type of medication they object to, using the threat of boycotts, picketing and really obnoxious politicians to get their way. If it were up to them, all pharmacies would stock is viagra and diapers, because if you're sick, it's because God is punishing you.

If they don't want to fill prescriptions, then they should find another line of work.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Precisely. The examples I keep thinking of are refusing to sell medicine for pain to pregnant women because God wants them to bear their children in suffering, and refusing to sell the Pill because it promotes promiscuity, not thinking, realizing, or caring that some women use it to control excessive bleeding during menstruation. I know at least two women who've had to use the pill not because they were particularly sexually active but because they risked bleeding to death every month.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

It's a bigger issue than just Plan B

A far bigger issue, and the cases are already hitting the courts and affecting the country.

In December, a California appeals court sided with the doctors, Christine Brody and Douglas Fenton, saying they can claim religious liberty in refusing to treat a patient who was gay because it was against their Christian beliefs. (My link was to a yahoo news item that has since gone down.)

Cervical Cancer Vaccine Gets Injected With a Social Issue (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/30/AR2005103000747.html) "A new vaccine that protects against cervical cancer has set up a clash between health advocates who want to use the shots aggressively to prevent thousands of malignancies and social conservatives who say immunizing teenagers could encourage sexual activity... A former member of the conservative group Focus on the Family serves on the federal panel that is playing a pivotal role in deciding how the vaccine is used... "Parents should have the choice. There are those who would say, 'We can provide a better, healthier alternative than the vaccine, and that is to teach abstinence,' " Rudd said."

And it's not just pharmacies where religion is trumping the requirements of a person in need. Baptists refuse to hand out bottles of water to Katrina survivors because the bottles had beer logos on them. (http://www.nbc-2.com/articles/readarticle.asp?articleid=4747)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

See, this is the kind o' stuff that makes me go off every once in a while and say shit like Religion is completely bad for the human race. Who would deny a disaster victim water because the bottle has a beer logo? That's just sick in the head.

And the Focus on the Fascism will never, ever get it through their heads that they're trying to fight the human sex drive, the compulsion to perpetuate the species that's pretty much the most basic instinct we have besides hunger, thirst, and fight-or-flight, combined with the human sexual response, one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways for a human being to feel good (and not incidentally encouraging people to perpetuate the species). And they're trying to fight this with, "Our invisible sky cop doesn't want you to."

The grand bulk of people don't care what James Dobson thinks of sex. They like to fuck, and they are going to fuck, and denying them a basic protection like that cervical cancer vaccine because of a delusion that it might make them more likely to fuck is stupid. Oh, yeah, I'm sure there are just thousands of teenage girls and unmarried women out there, thinking, "Man, I can't wait to get that cervical cancer vaccine. Then I can finally get some."

It's like the people who imagine that women who are in favor of abortions are somehow looking forward to getting one, as if it was a Saturday entertainment option: "Hmmm... the mall? Go out with friends? Rent a movie? Get a D&C? Hmmm...."

[neadods.livejournal.com]

this is the kind o' stuff that makes me go off every once in a while and say shit like Religion is completely bad for the human race

You and me both!

There's an LJ community called dark_christian that's not Christian-bashing; it's a watchdog for the dominionist takeover of pharmacies, schools, other churches, etc., if you're interested. It's the source for many of my church/state links.

[omimouse.livejournal.com]

I can't find any of the stuff that was floating around a while back, but there was an argument going on that doctors (including first responders) should be allowed to deny treatment on moral grounds. I.e., a Christian should be allowed to deny treatment to a homosexual (or a Democrat), because of their personal religous beliefs. The propsed law that I saw had no provisions whatsoever for little things like the patient possibly dying if they didn't get treatment.

louisadkins commented at the time that if they got that through and a doctor tried pullling that on him or on a loved one while he was there, he was going to treat it as the doctor in question attempting to commit homicide, and act accordingly.

warinbear beats his head into the wall a lot these days. I think he's beginning to feel like the last Christian in the US that remembers that God said "Love one another", without putting condtions of any sort on that love.