"plan b" not sold here

I was walking through my neighborhood the other day when I came across a sign in the window of a local drug store that said: PLAN B NOT SOLD HERE. (There it is above).

I knew that a lot of women had encountered pharmacy refusals for this medication, but until now it didn't occur to me that this might be happening where I live in Brooklyn, NY.

Plan B is the brand name for emergency contraception, (AKA: the morning after pill). Emergency contraception is a birth control pill that you can take up to 120 hours after unprotected sex.  It will help prevent a pregnancy from occurring.  It won't stop one that has already happened. That's why it isn't an abortion.

So what's up with pharmacists refusing to sell a medication that could prevent countless unplanned pregnancies from happening?  A lot claim religious or personal oppositions, saying they oppose abortion and so will not sell this pill.  Despite working in a medical field, many do not seem to understand that pregnancy can take up to five days to occur after sex, and that if Plan B is going to work, a woman cannot already be pregnant.

Some pharmacists do get this distinction and simply claim that they cannot stand in the way of a potential pregnancy. I wonder though, do these pharmacists also refuse to sell condoms or the pill?  (I imagine they do...)

There have been a number of lawsuits about this very issue across the country. Some have been brought by pharmacists who want the right to refuse. Others have been brought by women's advocacy groups who hope to ensure access to EC.  As a result, a few states allow pharmacists to choose not to sell emergency contraception and a few require them to do so. But a lot don't have clear laws on the issue. 

Like a lot of women out there I've had to take EC. And like most women in that situation, it wasn't a particularly fun experience. I can only imagine how much more stressful it would have been had I been turned down by a moralizing pharmacist who knew nothing about my circumstances.  But as the sign in my local drug store reminds me, that's stress that a lot of women regularly face all across the country.

Maybe some of you have have been in this situation. Feel free to share your story here. Or let us know what you think about pharmacist refusals. Should they be allowed to only fill prescriptions for medications they feel comfortable with?

Comments

[briana]

I think it's terrible that they're refusing EC. The pill is nothing like an abortion. On the pamphlet, it says it works one of three ways. Stopping ovulation, preventing an egg from being fertilized, or preventing a fertilized egg from attaching (usually working the first way). There's people who are being completely safe while having sex by using a condom. But sometimes, condoms break. That does not mean they were being irresponsible, there was just a mistake. And honestly, if you asked the pharmacists who refused to sell EC, "If your daughter was in this situation, would you want her to take Plan B?", you know they'd want to say yes.

[Jessy]

Honestly, If It was me that was going to get EC, and I got turned down, I would be pee'd right off. Especially if I'd gotten raped. Or If it turned out that I was actually pregs. This 'refusing' to give them out, that's plain riddiculous.

[Elizabeth]

I'm glad everyone who's responded thinks that refusing EC is crap. but with the "Pill Kills" campaign and the colorado measure to make a fertilized legally defined as a person, I feel like it will be a real struggle to make sure every woman has access to EC. Unfortunately.

[Jackie]

I think thats just plain stupid, if kids today wanna have unprotected sex or they dont know that their boyfriends/girlfriends doesnt have on a condom or is on the pill, and seeing as guys really dont have anything bad gonna happen to them (except maybe an STD, but that should have been checked before sex) While young women who just wanna have a little fun or whatever it is they want, can have a child. Im not with abortion, but if they aren't pregnant yet, why not sell the Plan B meds??? i mean everyone has a right to refuse service but only if its their store and the owners are refusing to sell the meds. I have a cousin who had her baby because she couldnt find a drug store that sold those, and nobody would let her have an abortion. now she is having problems because of having a baby. She is 18 and thank God she graduated highschool. her baby is beautiful,but if someone had sold her Plan B in a store Legally, she would go to college, as it is she plans on finding a job other than flipping burgers at burger king or Mikky D's. You have idiots who are always talking about how their never gonna get pregnent cuz they use condoms or their on the pill. as a child who came into this world even with a condom (which did not break) I and hundreds and thousands of others are living proof that condoms and or the pill are not fool proof. Abstinence is wonderful, but its not fool proof in todays world, with rapists, and other people who run around, be protected. If not always then when you do choose to be.

[Miranda]

I think it's rather ridiculous that people can refuse to give out EC--or condoms, or the pill. Your morals should not be inflicted on others when you are in a profession. It's like an OB/GYN refusing to see a woman because she got pregnant out of wedlock and s/he doesn't believe in that. I understand that people have different morals and religious beliefs regarding contraception and abortion (though I won't claim to understand those beliefs--men loose a heck of a lot of sperm even during unprotected sex and women loose an egg every month anyway), but if they want the job they should do it properly.

[Sarah]

To be fair, some pharmacists (at least in Canada) don't have the training to give out EC. Maybe it's different in the US where anyone can buy it, no questions asked, but here the pharmacist needs to assess your pregnancy risk first so you aren't taking it unnecessarily.
But really, doctors have to make decisions that go against their personal ethics all the time, even if it's just providing information or a referral. It shouldn't be different for pharmacists.

[Mandi]

I don't agree with using medications that could alter brain chemistry if therapy or other treatment is available. If I were a pharmacist, I wouldn't refuse to fill a prescription of Zoloft. It's ridiculous and none of their goddamn business.

[Mercedes]

It's preventing pregnancy. It isn't killing a baby. I know some who think that if there's the chance for another human life, we shouldn't take that chance away.

Personally though, I think it's a good way for us to stay safer if we've made a mistake. Even though we shouldn't have made that mistake in the first place.

[noe]

that's like owning a store and not selling chocolate just cause YOU don't like chocolate. pharmacies are there to provide us with what we need.

[Chris]

I understand the moral objections people may have to selling emergency contraception, but that doesn't give them the right to withold it. Besides the fact that they have no clue what led to the girl/woman's need to buy Plan B, innocent women should not have to suffer so a pharmacist can feel morally justified. States shouold require pharmacists to sell Plan B because it's the right thing to do, and because separation of church and state should tell people that their religious objections have no place being made into law.