Study: Pharmacies often deny access to morning-after pill

[Judi Lynn]

Study: Pharmacies often deny access to morning-after pill
By David Edwards
Tuesday, December 20, 2011

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius may want to rethink her decision to keep age restrictions on emergency contraception after recently released research indicated that many women are being illegally denied the medication.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief Margaret Hamburg had told reporters that she backed lifting the age restrictions for teens over the age of 12, but was overruled by Sebelius earlier this month.

Research released Monday by the Journal of the American Medical Association — or JAMA — suggests that many women, who are legally able to buy emergency contraception, are being told by pharmacies that they aren’t old enough to buy it without a prescription or that the drug isn’t available at all.

Female research assistants posing as 17-year-olds called every commercial pharmacy in Nashville, Tennessee; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Cleveland, Ohio; Austin, Texas; and Portland, Oregon. They found that 23.7 percent of pharmacies in low-income neighborhoods claimed that women could not obtain the morning-after pill under any circumstances regardless of age. This was only true of 14.6 percent of pharmacies in affluent neighborhoods.

More:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/20/study-pharmacies-often-deny-access-to-morning-after-pill/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story%29

[Brickbat]

1. Shame on the pharmacies, and shame on Sibelius.

This crap has got to stop.

[glowing]

5. Do you think Sebelieus was acting under her own?

A woman running the health and human service dept, decides on her own, that science and the FDA is junk, and she's not going to allow over the counter sales for any woman anywhere in this country that could help to prevent countless unwanted pregnancies by making an egg unviable before fertilazation?

Plan B means that it the alternative to the first method of choice and prevention. A condom breaks, there's a way to prevent and unwanted pregnancy and a horrible choice for young adults across this land... What is cheaper, allowing a young woman to take this medicine? Or the young woman having to face a tougher choice possibly down the road of choosing to have an actual abortion, and depending on the state in which the young woman resides, it may be nearly next to impossible for her to access a clinic in which she could obtain the abortion and the cost is significantly higher for an abortion. How many young, poor women have access to transportation, possibly a 2 or 3 night stay in a distant city, or $500.00 or more for the cost of the service? States have created so many loopholes, requirements, and extra costs like having to have an ultrasound and counceling against having an abortion. And then there's the ultimate cost of a young woman having the baby... The govt will be picking up the tab for healthcare, WIC, Food Stamps, Day Care vouchers, and the likelyhood that a young woman having a baby pre-graduation from highschool is going to have a tougher time making it thu the educational nececities that would allow for a better life and future for the mom and the child.

And let's not even speak of the morally reprehensible aspect of denying a woman who's been raped to take a medication that would prevent the already traumatized woman from having to deal with the possibility of becoming pregnant from a horribly violent and violating experience such as rape.

No, this wasnt this woman's decision. This was someone else playing politics and using a woman in this position to try to cover the politicized decision.

[Brickbat]

6. Of course not, but shame on her for going along with it. She isn't a child.

[Lance_Boyle]

16. She took complete responsibility for the decision - she owns it.

Why do you assume that just because she's a woman she can't be wrong on this issue, or is so weak that someone (no doubt some evil man, amirite?) forced her hand?

If you're going to spout crap conjecture, at least venture a guess as to who's decision you think it was. Here's a hint - it's probably the decision of the person who said it was hers. But no... a woman could never be wrong on an issue...

[Posteritatis]

26. Cabinet secretaries can only pass the buck so far. (nt)

[kestrel91316]

2. A few lawsuits for prenatal and childbirth expenses AND 18 years of childrearing

would stop this crap.

[kiranon]

9. Good idea. n/t

[Laelth]

3. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[glowing]

4. Once again, women are being used

as pawns in the political games... If this was something that a man needed for preventing something... It would be easily accessed and probably an item that would be covered for free by the govt because they would rather young males get the access, rather than go without due to lack of money or lack of health insurance or because they were embarrassed and wanted to hide it from mommy and daddy.

It is past the time we use minorities as wedge items to harm actual peoples lives, especially the young people, who have limited rights under the law. It's disgusting that the fundie/ tea party/ republicans are still harming American people. Time and time again, I am left with the question, who is really more harmful to American Freedoms and the Constitution? Who is more harmful to this country that is supposed to be of, for, and by The People? Who are the real threats to this country?

[closeupready]

7. How is denying the pill illegal?

I do NOT support pharmacies that deny the pill, as a disclaimer.

I simply want to know what the legal basis is for the statement in the article that pharmacies are breaking the law by doing so - what law?

[kiranon]

10. Equal protection under the law and right to access public accommodations (extending accommodations

meaning to include pharmacies).

[24601]

11. But denying it to someone trying to seek it under false pretences would not be illegal.

[Lance_Boyle]

17. what false pretenses?

Just as there is no law that says a person has to have bleeding hemorrhoids to buy preparation H, there is no law that says a woman 17 or older must have had unprotected sex within the previous 72 hours to buy plan B.

[closeupready]

12. Thank you.

[joeglow3]

23. That seems a bit of a stretch

In theory, I agree with you. However, I think you would have a real hard time applying that logic in a court.

[no_hypocrisy]

8. I need clarification.

Does the pharmacy buy the morning-after pharmaceutical and then deny it or does the pharmacy not buy/stock it to begin with?

[Posteritatis]

27. The article's fairly clear on that. (nt)

[RainDog]

13. k&r n/t

[Solly Mack]

14. k/r

[blue neen]

15. I worked in a pharmacy, and some Pharmacists just plain refuse to carry it.

It's their "personal beliefs" and all that.

When the ladies would call, I'd tell them we didn't have it, but also told them what pharmacies around did carry the morning after pill.

I got a lot of dirty looks from my boss for doing that.

This was in a low income neighborhood.

[Vinca]

18. Money speaks. HHS should sue the pharmacies.

Pharmacists should not be in their profession if they refuse to dispense legal drugs.

[ehrnst]

20. If I applied for a job as a cook at a restaurant that had meat on the menu

Then refused to prepare meat dishes because of "ethical" or "religious" beliefs, I would expect to be fired.

Not so with pharmacies.

[City Lights]

19. This makes me so angry.

:spitsnails:

[nonpareil]

21. As someone who has actually purchased Plan B

and found it an uncomfortable experience, I'd say the main benefit of making it truly OTC like Tylenol or condoms is that it would be easier for the adult women and older teenagers who actually use it to access it.

When I bought Plan B I was waited on by the pharmacy clerk who always creeps me out a bit (of course!). He acted like he had never heard of it and had to be directed to it on the shelves by one of the pharmacists. I had to keep mentally reminding myself, "This is a perfectly legal product. I'm an adult, a married woman. I have a perfect right to buy this." until I got out of there.

I wonder if sixteen or seventeen year old me had been faced with having to deal with that, would I have stood my ground or would I have been scared off? I'd bet a lot of older teens who could buy the product now don't because they're scared off by having to ask for it. I really doubt that younger girls are really much of an issue. How many even know such a product exists-let alone have the money to buy it?

[obamanut2012]

24. Thank you for your post

I have a cousin who a few weeks ago was turned down for Plan B by the Pharmacist on "religious grounds," although he told her where to go to get it -- a drugstore about five miles away. She said he made her feel like a whore, and she's a 41-year-old women.

The thing is, what he did is ILLEGAL in the state she lives in. Pharmacists who do not own their own pharmacy, but work at a chain, are not allowed to refuse to dispense Plan B. Per the law, he should be fired. But he did. The pharmacist at the other drugstore said the other guy was "notorious" in the area.

She has made an official complaint against him at both the State Board and with Rite-Aid.

My cousin said she thought women being refused was an "urban legend," and is horrified it actually happens.

[Quantess]

22. This type of BS is only getting worse, it seems.

[greiner3]

25. I would like to see;

The breakdown of the Northern Pharmacies vs. those in the South as to the overall percentages. Me thinks there would also be a direct correlation of another trend.

[lolly]

28. If you can afford it, keep it on hand

It's 50.00 for a dose of Plan B on drugstore.com

If I were of childbearing age and thought I might need it someday, I think I would buy a dose and keep it in a safe place. Even if you aren't in a relationship with a man, there are cases of rape where hospitals delay or refuse Plan B. If the unthinkable happens--or if there is a contraceptive failure--you would be able to take it immediately and not have to worry about some yahoo at the pharmacy or the emergency room

Don't know how much cheaper it is to buy in person at a pharmacy, but it might be worth it to spend a couple extra bucks to avoid the hassle.

The problem with online purchasing, of course, is that it wouldn't get to you in time after an event--but it works for planning ahead.

[Shoe Horn]

29. “Safer than Tylenol.”

And they pretend it's about kids accidentally OD'ing on it.

The idiots.