We all know that, in many states, your pharmacist can refuse to fill your contraception prescription on "moral grounds." But what if your pharmacist doesn't even keep EC in stock?
A report released today by Missouri NARAL shows pharmacists are avoiding the conscience clause debate by simply not stocking emergency contraception. And it's not only Wal-Mart they're talking about.
The results of NARAL's statewide survey of 920 pharmacies show:
* Almost 70% of pharmacies do not stock EC
* 38% of pharmacies do not stock EC and would not order the product if it is requested by a customer
* 90% of rural pharmacies do not stock EC
* Only 28% of those rural pharmacies reported they would order EC if it is requested by a customer
* Only 9% of hospital/hospital-affiliated pharmacies reported stocking EC.
Sure, pro-contraception governors like Blagojevich and Napolitano are standing up against pharmacists who refuse to dispense contraception. But we also need to hold pharmacies accountable for keeping EC in stock.
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via Godess Echidne, we find that David Hager, a physician on the advisory panel of the FDA, is taking credit for the denial to sell Plan B over-the-counter. Read More
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Since many birth control pills can be used as EC, couldn't doctors instead/also write a scrip for a single pack of pills? Depending on how quickly they expired, that would mean that women had additional doses of EC on hand in case of another accident, and it would allow them to give these crappy pharmacies the runaround (unless they also don't stock BCPs, but that seems less likely).