Target must be boycotted over pharmacists' malfeasance

[Minnesota Raindog]

Target evidently thinks denying emergency contraception to a customer is providing "great service." Fuck that--it's time for a massive boycott of these creeps.

Here's Target's response to its critics:

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
[e-mail]


Here's my response to Target:

Jennifer:

Your response is totally inadequate. How long before one of your employees says "My pope says condoms are wrong. Therefore, you cannot make me sell condoms because it violates my sincerely held religious beliefs." Or "My church says people with AIDS are sinners. Therefore, you cannot make me dispense AIDS drugs to customers because it violates my sincerely held religious beliefs." Far-fetched? Hardly. These beliefs have been openly advocated by mainstream religions and their leaders.

And how long will it be before a Target employee asserts their "sincerely held religious belief" that "(insert racial minority here) are inferior to the white race, and you cannot make me serve them because it violates my sincerely held religious belief."

Refusing to fill a prescription because your customers can get it filled elsewhere is a violation of your responsibility to dispense pharmaceuticals under a state-issued license. That is neither "timely" nor "respectful," and any Target pharmacist who refuses to fill any valid prescription immediately should have their pharmacist license revoked immediately.

Nothing short of this will ever bring me back to Target. I will continue to urge everyone I know to boycott Target--not only your pharmacy, but your entire store--as long as you keep up this charade of serving pharmacy customers in a "timely and respectful manner."

This is not "great service." Your policy is discriminatory against all your customers who do not share these radical religious beliefs.

[Divameow77]

1. I am torn

If I can't shop at Walmart, or Target where can I shop? I don't agree with what they are doing but I have to shop somewhere and I have to choose the lesser of 2 evils, that would be Target.

[hermetic]

2. I have to agree

Better Target than Wal Mart. And I would never get a rx filled at a Target anyway. They're a freaking department store! Much rather fill my rx's at a real pharmacy. There are many choices one can make.

And welcome to MN DU divemeow. Look forward to meeting you on the 26th!

:hi:

[Divameow77]

6. Thanks

me too :hi:

[northernsoul]

8. Walgreens promised Ms. Northernsoul

that they will always fill any prescription she presents. Get who gets business from chez Northernsoul?

[GAspnes]

3. You can write a letter

or two. And skip 'em for a while. They'll get the message.

I already have a cunning plan...letters to the editor.

[csorman]

4. This sucks

I was ready to switch my prescriptions to Target since I have a target credit card and you can get some fabulous incentives. But now I am seething. I vowed never to go to CVS Pharmacy again because of this - and now Target? Ugh, I won't boycott it (I just can't!) but I certainly won't bring my pharmacy business there. Walgreens has been totally awesome in the 6 years I've been there. Never missed a beat there. Oh, I hope they don't end up doing this, too...

[Minnesota Raindog]

5. Consider this

How many people unwilling to boycott Target over this issue would boycott them if they allowed pharmacists to refuse prescriptions to African-Americans due to "sincerely held religious beliefs?" Why are women any different?

Remember the old saying: "They came for the Jews, but I wasn't a Jew, so I didn't care..."

[northernsoul]

7. a legally inconsistent position

IF (and that's a mighty big IF, compadres) it is correct that they are obligated by Title VII allow their employees to not do their jobs when it conflicts with "sincerely held religious beliefs", then it is facile and premature to say that the only medication this applies to is Plan B. If they're going to be consistent, this policy potentially applies to any medication (I'm looking at you, Viagra). In theory, one of their pharmacists could convert to Christian Science, renounce the use of medicine altogether, and refuse to fill any perscriptions.

Don't think this ends with Plan B...

What if an ambulance company decides to follow Target's legal analysis and allows its drivers to pick and choose who they will bring to the emergency room? Can they leave people who've had a drug overdose to die because they find drug use morally objectionable?

For the record, I'm studying Title VII right now at Ye Olde Lawyer Factory, we should be getting to the "religious" sections pretty soon. I have a hunch that Target has flat-out gotten the law wrong, expect to hear back from me on this pretty soon.