Letter I rec'd from Wal-Mart regarding contraceptive sales:

[flamingpie2500]

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting us at Walmart.com regarding women?s
prescriptions for birth control. Your comments and concerns are very
important to us as we strive to meet your needs.

Wal-Mart does not carry emergency contraceptives. Our pharmacists may
decline to fill a prescription based on personal convictions. However,
they must find another pharmacist, either at Wal-Mart or another
pharmacy, who can assist you by filling your prescription.

Again, we thank you for your comments regarding this issue.

Sincerely,


Customer Service at Walmart.com


Original Message Follows:
------------------------


Wal-Mart Pharmacies


Dear Wal-Mart Pharmacies,

All over the country I have noticed a disturbing trend of
pharmacies refusing to fill women's prescriptions for birth
control. When a woman and her doctor decide that a prescription
for contraception is in the woman's best interest, a third party
has no right to override that decision. Pharmacies must ensure
that patients get their doctor-prescribed medication without
delay or inconvenience. I ask that your company assure me and
your other customers that no woman seeking prescription
contraception will be turned away by your company's pharmacies.

No doubt a majority of your customers take for granted that
women should be able to receive their birth control despite the
personal beliefs of the individual pharmacist. Timely access to
contraception is central to women's health, autonomy, and
equality. We must trust women and their doctors to make their
own reproductive health decisions.

I thank you, in advance, for protecting your customer's health
by ensuring your pharmacy will guarantee women have unhindered
access to their prescribed medications.

Thank you for your attention and support.



Sincerely,

http://prochoiceaction.org/campaign/pharmacists_wa?source=workingassets_combo

[otohara]

1. This Says To Me

WM customers don't use contaceptives. Otherwise, they wouldn't do such a dumbass move. The demand is not there apparantly. What do they mean by emergency contraceptives? Do they carry sponges, creams, condoms?

[rpannier]

2. Calendars

So you can figure out which days are best to have sex so your wife/gf won't become pregnant.

[Tesibria]

4. "emergency contraceptives"

i *think*, is RU-486.

[otohara]

5. I Didn't Think These Were Available

yet. Yes/no?

[Tesibria]

11. I'm pretty sure it IS available

..
see
http://www.prochoiceohio.org/s07currentprojects/econtraception.shtml#1
(containing a link and hotline number re: where you can get it)

I also recall a story a bit back re: FDA was going to "enhance" the warnings on RU-486 after 3 women died after taking it. Or something like that.

I think it's been available (tho' carried by few pharmacies) since 2001 or 2002 ?

[tammywammy]

9. RU-486 is the pill that can cause an abortion

Emergency Contraceptive is usually just the Morning After Pill (Plan B), which is just a higher dose of regular birth control pills.

[colinmom71]

14. No...

RU 486 is a course of drugs designed to induce an abortion. It is not emergency contraception since contraception is, by definition, an attempt to prevent conception and pregnancy. RU 486 terminates an already established pregnancy...

Info on RU 486 - http://www.ru486facts.org/

Emergency contraception is essentially four or five high does birth control pills that is likely to prevent a pregnancy. It's often prescribed in cases of rape or if a condom broke...

Info on emergency contraception - http://womensissues.about.com/cs/reproductive/a/blmorningafter.htm

[otohara]

22. The Website You Posted is Very Anti-RU486

ru486facts.org seems very biased, although it claims not to be.

All of the news links re: RU486 in the News refers only to women who have died.

And check out this guilt trip info on the psycological emotions & reactions:

6. Emotional and psychological reactions

The former chairman of Roussel-Uclaf (the French company which developed RU-486), Edouard Sakiz told the French newspaper Le Monde:
"As abortifacient procedures go, RU-486 is not at all easy to use. ... True, no anaesthetic is required. But a woman who wants to end her pregnancy has to 'live' with her abortion for at least a week using this technique. It's an appalling psychological ordeal."63

Catherine Euvrard, formerly a spokeswoman for Roussel-Uclaf who now holds the same job for the new French manufacturer of RU-486, Exelgyn, has said: "When take a pill, they have the feeling they are truly responsible for the abortion. ... psychological pain."64

"During this critical two-week period the tiny embryo in an amorphous sac begins to look very much like a baby, with a discernible head and limbs. ... Nurse Frenpzel remembers a day ... when she ... saw six surgical dishes with six embryos in them by the sink. 'It was upsetting,' she said. 'It was like looking at a little row of people. The women too were shocked when they looked at what they had expelled."65

"You have to be very confident to choose this method. It may be physically more natural, but psychologically it hits you much harder. You preside over the killing of a baby, completely unblinkingly. For women who are confused or vulnerable, and of course, so many are in this position, it is really terrible."66

[Warpy]

16. No, it's Plan B

which is an overdose of birth control pills which prevent a fertilized ovum from implanting in the uterine wall as a pregnancy.

Those pious jerks in management got sold a false idea that it was some how an "abortion drug." Well, you can't have an abortion unless you've had a pregnancy first, so this is a total crock of shit and more Wally World pandering to the most ignorant mysoginists on the planet.

I guess the return letter should accuse them of promoting abortion, since that is what Plan B and birth control prescriptions are supposed to PREVENT.

[politicat]

18. No, EC is a high dose of normal birth-control pills.

See: http://ec.princeton.edu/ for details. Basically, if, within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse, a woman takes a high dose of progestin, implantation of any possible conceptus is not possible, and the pills bring about a period. As it is impossible to tell if conception has happened at that stage anyway, what EC does is prevent pregnancy. It is most properly called a contraceptive. At this stage, there IS no pregnancy.

RU-486, which is more properly known as mifepristone, is entirely different. It is a drug, administered ONLY in a clinical setting (it cannot be obtained by prescription) that, if administered by a trained professional in the first 9 weeks of pregnancy, is a safe, effective method of abortion is a treatment for fibroid tumors, ovarian cancer, endometriosis, meningioma, and some types of breast cancer. Mifepristone, as it relates to reproduction, is only usable if a pregnancy has been diagnosed. Most properly, the term for mifepristone is abortifacient.

So what Walmart is denying is a contraception drug. It's the same as if they were denying regular birth control pills or the sale of condoms, and they do sell condoms, female condoms, film, gel, etc.

[Mandate My Ass]

24. That is incorrect

RU-486 is the abortion pill. EC does not cause abortions. It has the same ingredients as birth control pills but in a stronger dosage. It prevents ovulation or perhaps implantation but it is not an abortifacient like RU-486.

[LeftyMom]

28. no, it's a high dose of birth control pills to perevent implantation

RU486 is for abortion in early pregnancy, and is only done under medical supervision because some women retain bits of placenta and whatnot and require surcigcal followup.

[colinmom71]

7. Emergency contraceptives are...

the "morning after pill". It's essentially four or five high dose birth control pills that help reduce the possibility of pregnancy. It's commonly prescribed for someone who has been raped or had a condom break.

It doesn't surprise me that WM won't carry these. It likely isn't in high enough demand for them to be able to buy it in bulk and profit from the sale. Birth control pills however are very commonly prescribed and likely quite profitable for their pharmacies, thus they will sell regular BC pills. It's good that they at least (claim to) have a corporate policy that demands the customer be referred to a pharmacy that will fill a BC pill script should the pharmacist have objections to medical BC...

WM's I've been in do indeed also stock condoms, spermicide creams/foams, and the sponge (when they were available in the US).

[mongo]

10. Walmart does sell condoms and lube

[OneBlueSky]

20. "WM customers don't use contaceptives" . . .

well, THAT certainly explains a lot . . .

[HockeyMom]

3. Female Pharmacists

Would LOVE to see a female pharmacist refuse to dispense VIAGRA on personal convictions. Come on, girls. DO IT.

[Misunderestimator]

13. Indeed! I am definitely against nasty old geezers running around...

with hard-ons... :puke:

[Cleita]

6. Refusing contraceptives?

Wow, even in the dark ages of the fifties, available contraceptives were available to married women. Oh, yes men could buy condoms without being married. Does this apply to condoms too? Or is the double standard coming back?

[Tesibria]

8. I'm pretty sure ...

.. that the pharmacy WILL make them available; an individual pharmacist may refuse to fill the prescription, but must find someone else who will.

.. and, of course, condoms are available as no prescription required. (thank goodness for both men and women)

[HockeyMom]

19. Not in Connecticut they couldn't

That was the case the Supremes used to decide Roe. Griswald v Ct. 1968. It was illegal to sell contraceptives to married couples. Where the privacy aspect came in. State had no right to intrude on the privacy of married couples. Their right to privacy trumped the state's right to have future citizens procreated. Something to the effect of that.

Most people have no idea that it was the issue of BIRTH CONTROL which really decided Roe. That is why they are were saying that the Lawrence decision could pave the way for gay marriage.

Any lawyers out there? So, if they strike down Roe, would that strike down Griswald too? If there is no right to privacy, then there is no right to privacy in other cases?

[Maestro]

12. Boy that opens a can of worms

What if a Wally World pharmacist does not want to fill my anti-depression medicine based on personal convictions; I should seek more counseloring or some such bullshit. Do these people ever think through their decisions and the ramifications?

[Tesibria]

17. I'm pretty sure that this is STANDARD corporate policy of MOST pharmacies

... because of the "Freedom of Religion" "issue" put forth by employees ...

who assert that it's against their religion to dispense contraceptives....

[tammywammy]

25. It's not just that

But why in the world would you enter into a profession that you cannot completely do?
For instance, I have a bad back, so I wouldn't apply for a job where heavy lifting is involved.
Is the next step, a Christian Scientists pharmacists, that just refuses to fill anything?
This whole issue should be moot, medicine is perscribed by a doctor in consultation with a patient. How does someone know that the BC pill isn't perscribed for painful cramps &/or regulation? Their job is just to fill the perscription, not to implement personal/religious ideals into it.
I will never shop at CVS b/c they refused to fire a pharmacists that wouldn't fill BC for someone.

[Maestro]

26. I'm with you

If you can't do the job in its entirety, don't apply.

[tammywammy]

27. And just when does it stop?

No blood pressure medicine? Diabetics, no insulin for you. Got a cold, well just suffer b/c no antibiotics today.

This just shouldn't even BE an issue.

Why don't the Christian pharmacists that don't want to prescribe BC, just start their own pharmacy. You know, it could have a sign on the door that says "NO Birth Control." That would solve their problem, the customers already know that they don't prescribe it, and can choose to go somewhere else, and people of like mindedness can choose to go there.

[stanwyck]

15. Eckerds refuses to answer

my complaint about their treatment of my 21-yr. old daughter who was publicly put under an inquisition when she picked up her birth control pills at an Eckerd's counter. She's 21 but is often mistaken for a much younger person as she is very petite. The pharmacist wanted to know how old she was, didn't believe her when she said 21, and asked to see her driver's license. He grudgingly handed over the pills but she was embarrassed. The clerk at the counter was a former high-school classmate. And the incident happened in our suburb...so it was hardly anonymous. Eckerds won't return my phone calls or answer my letters. I fear we're seeing "convictions" invade our personal health from people who have no business dictating to us about our health.

[politicat]

21. That violates HIPPA.

That's a privacy issue and you might want to get your insurance company involved.

Or let Eckerds know you're contacting a lawyer about their blatant violation of HIPPA.

[madrchsod]

23. the majority of pharmacists

do not believe they have the right to with hold valid prescriptions. trade magazine poll..can`t say the name -i`m sworn to secrecy