I just read something that made my heart sink

[PlanetBev]

Sorry, I don’t know how to link stories. It was an article that appeared in Politico today. The anti-abortion crowd is now planning to picket CVS and Walgreens pharmacies for their plans to disperse the abortion pill. They’re planning to use the same tactics they use in harassing people visiting Planned Parenthood clinics.

My best guess is that these corporations will knuckle under to these fanatics in record time.

Sorry, I just hate these people.

[brooklynite]

1. "Next frontier in the abortion wars: Your local CVS"

Fresh off winning their decades-long battle to overturn Roe v. Wade, abortion-rights opponents are pinpointing their next targets: the nation’s biggest pharmacy chains.

Anti-abortion advocates are organizing pickets outside CVS and Walgreens in early February in at least eight cities, including Washington, D.C., in response to the companies’ plans to take advantage of the Food and Drug Administration’s decision last week allowing retail pharmacies to stock and dispense abortion pills in states where they’re legal.

The demonstrations aim to bring the same chants, signs and tense confrontations to drug store parking lots that groups have long used to try to deter visits to abortion clinics. The protests will coincide with a call-in campaign and planned national boycott of the chains.

“We want people to be uncomfortable going into a CVS that has a demonstration going on and to consider going to a different pharmacy,” said Caroline Smith, a leader of the group Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising. “We also want to put enough pressure on the companies to retract this decision and not get certified to sell abortion pills.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/11/pharmacies-anti-abortion-pills-00077349

[PlanetBev]

8. Thank you so much for posting the article

I appreciate it.

[wryter2000]

14. They're going to harass me

When I get my BP meds? Way to make friends.

[inthewind21]

15. I'm going

to make a point to go to CVS EVERY. SINGLE. DAY! Unless they cave. Then they are on their own.

[Jilly_in_VA]

2. I'd like to see them show up at my Walgreens

This old granny will have a few choice words for them, mostly unprintable.

[Doc Sportello]

30. Let them have it

This old guy will be doing the same. People who think they have the right to tell others how to live don't deserve politeness.

[Glorfindel]

3. Is this the article?

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-pulse/2023/01/11/pharmacies-in-the-crosshairs-00077292

[PlanetBev]

13. That looks like an abbreviated version of it

It’s a pretty long article.

[brush]

4. They must want to lose the next election.

[Atticus]

9. This. nt

[wryter2000]

12. You said it

This is d such a loser for them.

[TomDaisy]

6. good. let them come to my neighborhood. let them come.

[Atticus]

11. Yup! nt

[Hortensis]

7. Bring them on. They're LOSING, PlanetBev.

Btw, public corporations not only want to make profits, they're also required by law, and shareholders, to generate them for their shareholders. A large majority of Americans are pro abortion. If you do the arithmetic, don't forget to apply possible geographic factors.

[PlanetBev]

17. Thanks, Hortensis

As crazy as this makes me, I am reminded that as long as they won’t give up, neither will we.

I just sent off a donation to The Brigid Alliance. They help women in the repressive states to get to states that offer abortion services. They provide transportation, lodging, meals, even child care.

[Hortensis]

22. Hey, that's a very meaningful way to help abortion

remain available in future as well as now.

[pamdb]

10. assholes

We don't have a CVS on our side of town, but I will have to make it point to go to Walgreens more. They can't picket
just the pharmacy, it would have to be the whole store.

[Sympthsical]

16. This will backfire

The thing about protesting places like Planned Parenthood is they're generally not a place your average person would visit in their everyday lives. Yes, many people do for various levels of care, but no one has a running schedule to go every week or so.

People do go to places like CVS and Walgreens on a regular basis. This will be in the average person's face.

People can often compartmentalize issues, particularly when they themselves do not encounter them in everyday life. And within those lives, they generally prefer to be insulated from politics. I'm politically interested and still don't want to see anyone hassling me outside of Safeway no matter what their issue - no one likes this.

Making the abortion debate a part of someone's regular routine will not go the way these people think it will. I foresee resentment at minimum escalating to outright anger.

I'm a fairly quiet, insular person in public. Smile and wave as I pass whatever. However, if I encountered these people anywhere near the door, I think I would say something. I do not do politics in public - ever. But I think this would be an exception.

[Taylor Picker]

20. I agree.

[Taylor Picker]

18. The problem for the picketers is, it seems to me, that 99.7% of people entering a CVS or Walgreens

aren't there for abortion pills.
Most are there for medications they need and depend on. They have relationships with the pharmacy staff. They may be required by their insurance carrier to get their medications at that chain.
I don't see it going well for protesters causing disruptions.

[Ms. Toad]

19. A bit more info: Target date is 2/4, and the list of 8 cities

Protests will take place on February 4 in eight U.S. cities including Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Detroit, Austin, and Atlanta. More cities will be announced in the upcoming days, according to the group.

https://www.liveaction.org/news/activists-protest-cvs-walgreens-abortion-pill/

We need angels to protect shoppers - like the angels used to protect LGBT folks from the "God hates fags" church

[Hortensis]

23. Thanks, Ms. Toad. Hope "Atlanta" means outer metro too.

Missing out on most of this good stuff is one of the negatives to living in quiet rural areas. But if I see any when I'm in town I'll pull in just to tell them they've already lost, and buy something.

[Freethinker65]

26. So go and shop the day after and thank them for their respecting medical science.

[bucolic_frolic]

21. These people don't respect boundaries on your body, or corporate property rights

They need psychiatric evaluations

[crickets]

24. K&R for the post and the discussion.

[Freethinker65]

25. Rx can be picked up through drive through.

Harassing customers like parents frantically searching for posterboard after dinner for their kid's school project, kids buying sports drinks, young women buying feminine hygiene products, etc. will not help their misguided through ignorance cause.

Plus there are so many locations in metropolitan areas to cover.

[Leith]

27. That is one picket line I would happily cross

I'm too old to need abortifacients so they wouldn't harass me too much. If they try to tell me that the store sells such medicines, I will shout "Good! They also give Covid vaccinations" and keep going in.

Unfortunately my city isn't on the list yet.

[MiniMe]

28. Remember when it was Peoples Drug Stores?

A long way from that now.

[Hekate]

29. KnR

[WhiskeyGrinder]

31. Aw, they must feel like they're not getting enough attention at abortion clinics. They LOVE it when

people yell at them and call them names. They LOVE getting a rise out of people. It feels good to flip them off or yell at them, but they feel like they've won when that happens.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

32. of course... and let the voters see how these fanatics are determined to control women