Planned Parenthood Demands CVS Action on Birth Control Prescriptions;"Don't Let This Happen Again"

releases.usnewswire.com ^

[chance33_98]

Planned Parenthood Demands CVS Action on Birth Control Prescriptions; Feldt to CVS CEO: Don't Let This Happen Again

3/31/2004 11:58:00 AM

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To: National Desk

Contact: Erin Libit of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, 202-973-4883 or Erin.Libit@ppfa.org

NEW YORK, March 31 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Gloria Feldt is demanding that CVS CEO Tom Ryan take action after a CVS pharmacist refused to fill a prescription for birth control medication.

"On behalf of America's women, I want your personal guarantee that this will never happen again," Feldt wrote in a letter today to Ryan. "We want to know the immediate steps you will take to guarantee that all CVS pharmacies ensure that every patient's prescription is filled...I urge you to consider whose conscience really counts here."

A CVS Pharmacy in Texas refused Monday to fill a prescription for birth control pills for customer Julee Lacey. Lacey was told that the CVS pharmacist did not "believe" in birth control, and refused to fill the prescription.

CVS' customer service line initially informed callers that CVS supported the pharmacists' actions and that refusing to fill prescriptions based on personal beliefs was in line with CVS policy. Soon afterwards, however, callers to CVS were told their local pharmacist had not followed company policy.

According to CVS policy, a pharmacist who refuses to dispense medication based on personal ideology must make sure that the patient's prescription is filled anyway, either by another pharmacist at that location or by another pharmacy in the area.

"Contraception is basic medicine for women." Feldt said, "The refusal to provide it is an unacceptable imposition of narrow personal ideology on women's rights. This latest episode is just another in an ongoing series of attacks on women's reproductive health, and pharmacy refusals constitute a dangerous emerging trend. We won't stand silently by while Julee Lacey and women like her are denied the basic health care they need."

This is the second time in recent months that pharmacists have imposed personal ideological beliefs on patients in the state of Texas. In February, an Eckerd pharmacist in Denton, Texas, refused to fill a rape survivor's prescription for emergency contraception, an essential safe and effective tool in the fight against unintended pregnancy. He was subsequently fired for his actions.

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Planned Parenthood Federation of America is the nation's largest and most trusted voluntary reproductive health organization. We believe that everyone has the right to choose when or whether to have a child -- and that every child should be wanted and loved. Planned Parenthood affiliates operate nearly 900 health centers nationwide, providing medical services and sexuality education for millions of women, men, and teenagers each year.

[Blood of Tyrants]

What the hell does this taliban crap have to do with anything?

So now Catholics who hold their faith firmly shouldn't be "allowed" to become pharmacists?

The person simply refused to dispense a drug based on THEIR religious beliefs. Whether the drug is a birth control pill or RU-486 makes no difference.

Believe it or not, you do NOT have the right to demand that a person sell you anything. You have the right to boycott CVS and to go someplace else where they also have the right to not sell you what you want.

[Liz]

There's more to this story. Probably it was not merely birth control but a contraceptive abortifacient....that is, it didn't just prevent contraception but caused an abortion of the nascent life.

Planned Parenthood is the nation's largest operator of abortion clinics and is federally and state funded. What they do or say cannot be taken seriously by anyone who respects human life.


Here's where to tell CVS that you support them:



http://www.cvs.com/CVSApp/cvs/gateway/help/helpContact#email

[contessa machiaveli]

i said "talibanesque" and that was in reference to your punitive attitude towards women.

one doesn't know if this woman could have gone down the block to have her prescription filled, CVS may have been the only pharmacy in town. we don't know all the facts, however i would assume the doctor didn't prescribe an illegal drug and she is entitled to have it filled. if this pharmacist went against CVS policy perhaps he should quit.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Once again, your WANTS are NOT rights nor should they trump a person's deeply held religious beliefs. This pharmacist wasn't trying to impose their morality on anyone. He simply refused to be a party in what was against his beliefs.

Where do you draw the line?

Should A pharmacist be required by law under threat of imprisonment to provide RU-486 to a woman who wants to kill the baby growing inside her?

Should a doctor be required by law to write her that prescription?

Should a doctor who opposes abortion be required to provide a partial birth abortion because the woman wants to kill the baby?

Should his nurse and anesthetist be required to help him commit murder?

Should taxpayers be forced to pay for them?

[contessa machiaveli]

pharmacists are licensed to provide a legal public service, not impose his religious beliefs.

if CVS (which is a publicly traded stock) refuses to dispense legal medication i can guarantee the value of shares will plummet.... and they are in the business of making a profit.

[Sloth]

"Contraceptive" drugs are a poison. Their effect is to disrupt the natural processes of the body; to cause the malfunction of that which is healthy and functional. Fertility is not a disease. Now, all y'all 'ladies' out there on this forum that are poisoning your reproductive systems can flame away all you like. I care not. You know I'm right.

My wife took birth control pills for years before we got married, to control symptoms of endometriosis. Essentially, they shortened her extremely painful 7-9 day periods to more tolerable, normal 4-5 day ones. Hopefully, it also suppresses the growth of endometrial tissue in her abdomenal cavity (which was actually life-threatening for one of her aunts). Was she poisoning herself? Should a pharmacist have refused to provide her medicine?

[Blood of Tyrants]

pharmacists are licensed to provide a legal public service

So are nurses and doctors. You have completely failed to show why a pharmacist should be treated different from another health professional.

not impose his religious beliefs.

Yet you insist that the government can require people to abandon their beliefs for the convenience of others and that CVS can force people to do likewise in order to make a profit and keep their stock prices high. Not only that, you are implying that religious beliefs mean nothing when compared to the wishes of Planned Parenthood and corporations.

[ArrogantBustard]

You are, no doubt, an intelligent person. So I put the question right back to you:

Was she poisoning herself?

Was she "disrupt[ing] the natural processes of the body; ... caus[ing] the malfunction of that which is healthy and functional"? Was she treating her fertility as a disease?

You can answer that for yourself, and then realize that you have not argued against my position at all, nor even addressed it.

[ArrogantBustard]

Does your conscience bother you?

[katiebelle]

not only that but there are many mecial reasons someone may be on the pill that has nothing to do with birth control. Some women have terrible terrible periods and use this to regulate them.

[katiebelle]

has it occured to you that even the best of charters sometimes miscalculate their ovulation? It isn't always as simple as you would assume.

[katiebelle]

am also sure that birth control pills contributed to this

And you are sure how? Have you read any of the latest research?

[ArrogantBustard]

BFD. Has it ever occurred to you that Fertility Poison doesn't always disrupt the functioning of your ovaries? Are you aware of what happens when your fertility poison fails? Do the words "chemical abortion" mean anything to you? Are you just fine and comfy with a monthly abortion?

I've (had to) put a great deal more consideration into this issue than you ass-u-me.

[Campion]

Planned Parenthood Federation of America is the nation's largest and most trusted voluntary reproductive health organization. We believe that everyone has the right to choose when or whether to have a child ...

... but we don't believe that believing Catholics have the right to work as pharmacists, doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, judges, legislators, presidents, governors ...

[ArrogantBustard]

We believe that everyone has the right to choose when or whether to have a child ...

They, like so many others, forget the one, simple, harmless, inexpensive, and effective way to avoid having a child.

[Gerish]

Sure I've read it.....lots of mumbo jumbo. Sometimes you just have to experience these things first hand and see it and work around these patients to know i.e. common sense. The doctors know, the nurses know and the patients themselves know. Alot and I mean ALOT of these women will admit that putting that poison pill in their body years ago has attributed to the terrible affliction they now suffer through. Too many regrets.......

[cyborg]

Why do people take jobs that may go against some their personal beliefs? Some people take BC for severe acne or period cramps.

[cyborg]

You do realise that BC is prescribed for things like acne and painful periods right?

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

My local CVS sells a less popular brand of cigarettes that no other CVS stores carry. Should I demand that all CVS's sell them?

Haven't these whining Clymers ever heard of other pharmacies? That's where you go when one doesn't have what you want. PP can go to hell, but that goes without saying.

[ArrogantBustard]

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