CVS Will Fill Your Pills!

[MaineDem]

An email I got today:
Two weeks ago, we asked you to help us urge six major pharmacy chains to enact policies requiring their pharmacists to dispense medication, not moral judgment.


As a result of thousands of calls and e-mails across the country, CVS Pharmacy came out with a new policy to ensure that all birth control prescriptions are filled without delay.

Send an e-mail to CVS to thank them for putting patients' rights first. Urge other pharmacies to do the same!

We urge you to join us and tell your friends about this campaign.

Planned Parenthood is continuing to fight back with its Fill My Pills Now campaign. Don't know where your pharmacy stands? Check out our top-50-pharmacies scorecard and let your pharmacy know that it must fill your pills.

http://www.saveroe.com//fillmypillsnow/scored.php

[supernova]

1. Never had a problem at CVS.

I have however, been turned away, twice at the Super Target. :shrug:

[Pirate Smile]

3. Really? Because it is against their "beliefs"? We need to make

a big stink about it then.

I would think Target wouldn't want a lot of negative publicity from this.

[ananda]

19. boycott Target

I will now boycott Target.

[Warpy]

4. WRITE A LETTER!!!!!!

Write the name of the store, the pharmacist's name (the name on the tag will do) plus the date and time you were refused a legal prescription.

Send it to your state pharmacist's licensing board. Every state has one.

Only when these complaints pile up will pharmacists have their licenses threatened over what is essentially practicing medicine without a license.

THESE PEOPLE ARE DANGEROUS, and should be driven out of business. They have no way of knowing if you're taking those pills for birth control, endometriosis, cystic acne, or other conditions. THEY ARE NOT DOCTORS.

If they can't do their jobs, they need to HAVE THEIR LICENSES PULLED!!

Write that letter! Do it NOW.

[supernova]

8. That's the thing

It's never, "I'm not going to fill this script because of my beliefs.."

The response I get is "we're out of it.... " And they send me somewhere else. The first time was to another Target 25 minutes away. The second time was to the CVS right behind them.

[Pirate Smile]

22. I've had that happen with a lot of different prescriptions. They are

always out of something so if you can wait until the next day or so, they will fill it.

That doesn't sound like the other cases of refusing birth control pills where they seem to want to make a political/personal statement.

[KaliTracy]

6. CVS was one that made the news. Was it the Pharmacist that

turned you away? Did he/she have a reason?

Pharmacists and Doctors have been denying women -- either to write a prescription or fill a prescription) {NOT just the morning after pill!}

http://msn.prevention.com/article/0,5778,s2-1-93-35-4130-1-P,00.html

Access Denied

Find out why growing numbers of doctors and pharmacists across the US are refusing to prescribe or dispense birth control pills

by Caroline Bollinger




Intro
In April, Julee Lacey, 33, a Fort Worth, TX, mother of two, went to her local CVS drugstore for a last-minute Pill refill. She had been getting her prescription filled there for a year, so she was astonished when the pharmacist told her, "I personally don't believe in birth control and therefore I'm not going to fill your prescription." Lacey, an elementary school teacher, was shocked. "The pharmacist had no idea why I was even taking the Pill. I might have needed it for a medical condition."

Melissa Kelley, 35, was just as stunned when her gynecologist told her she would not renew her prescription for birth control pills last fall.

"She told me she couldn't in good faith prescribe the Pill anymore," says Kelley, who lives with her husband and son in Allentown, PA. Then the gynecologist told Kelley she wouldn't be able to get a new prescription from her family doctor, either. "She said my primary care physician was the one who helped her make the decision." Lacey's pharmacist and Kelley's doctors are among hundreds, perhaps thousands, of physicians and pharmacists who now adhere to a controversial belief that birth control pills and other forms of hormonal contraception--including the skin patch, the vaginal ring, and progesterone injections--cause tens of thousands of "silent" abortions every year. Consequently, they are refusing to prescribe or dispense them.

Scenarios like these--virtually unheard of 10 years ago--are happening with increasing frequency. However, until this spring, the issue received little attention outside the antiabortion community. It wasn't high on the agendas of reproductive rights advocates, who have been preoccupied with defending abortion rights and emergency contraception. But when Lacey's story was picked up by a Texas TV station and later made the national news, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and others took notice.

[FreedomAngel82]

13. I think it's ridiculous

Why are they in that business if they know they'll have to do that? Couldn't they do something else in the medical field? What about being a nurse or hospice or something? :shrug: I think it's freakin nuts. They know their job is to fill any prescription. Not just the one's they think go with their beliefs. :mad:

[KaliTracy]

16. I agree -- but there is a whole "coalition" of them out there according

to the article. Which, in my opinion, is just wrong. Especially the pharmacists, they have NO RIGHT making a judgement call/medical decision like that.

It's stuff like this that is going to make the possible overturn of roe v. wade a very contentious fight, I fear

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. Makes me wonder if

the kid at McDonald's will refuse to sell me a Big Mac because it's not good for me.

[KaliTracy]

21. LOL -- but your insurance company might up your premiums if they

know of a propensity for Double Cheese, Double Meat Pizza or Super Big Macs and double thick chocolate shakes.

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. Not if you bribe the

fast food employees. LOL

[PassingFair]

24. Jeez Louise!

It's like the pod people have taken over!
-Insert crazy picture of Donald Sutherland here-

I'll gladly write to CVS and thank them for making a stand.

[Plausible]

2. does this include morning after pills? n/t

[MaineDem]

9. That's a really good question

I don't know if this affects the Emergency Contraception at CVS.

Here in Maine Plan B does not require a doc's prescription. Pharmacists attend training sessions to be allowed to dispense it.

[Shallah Kali]

26. Plan B is over the counter in ME but pharm. can legally refuse to dispense

it and any other drug they don't wish to prescribe. Naral lists each states laws here:
http://www.naral.org/yourstate/

[CottonBear]

5. Cool! Do they fill emergency contraception prescriptions too?

I always go to CVS.

[etherealtruth]

7. The pharmacy "ratings" at the link are very useful, thanks n/t

[berni_mccoy]

10. My local CVS pharmacist

Is appalled by any pharmacist withholding any medication as these insane pharmacists have done. He is a great pharmacist and has helped our family immensly with as much specialized medications that we need.

[FreedomAngel82]

14. CVS is a pretty good store I think

A good friend of mine works there and she seems to really enjoy it. My parents get their prescriptions at Exkerds (sp?). I get mine through the mail since it's a ninety day supply.

[ananda]

20. CVS used to be..

.. Eckerds

[1monster]

28. No. CVS has been around for many years. I know this because I once

worked for Revco Drugs. When Revco filed for bankruptsy in the late eighties or early nineties, they sold off loads of their stores. Eckerds, Rite-Aid, and CVS bought most of them.

CVS recently bought out the Eckerds drug chain, but CVS was around long before they purchased Eckerds.

[ncteechur]

11. Any pharmacist that would withhold medication

should have his/her license revoked and be kicked out of the profession on their ass. Period.

[foreverdem]

12. Rite Aid

A woman came storming into my local Rite Aid the other night and I overheard her telling the pharmacist that she had brought her birth contol prescription to another pharmacy and the pharmacist asked her what was the reason she was taking birth control. The woman said she lost it, grabbed the presciption back from him and stormed out. She also told him it was none of his f'ing business, his job was to fill the rx. Rite Aid filled it with no problem.

[Pirate Smile]

23. I would be livid. I'm sure there are a lot of not very politically

involved women who would be so offended if the pharmacist refused to fill their BC pills because they believed they were "sinning" and doing something so terrible that they refuse to be a party to it.

Unbelievable.

I've known about this for quite a while but it still always galls me that people would have the nerve to go into that profession and then practice it in this manner.

Perhaps it will motivate some new voters to become more politically conscious and involved. A big slap in the face can do that to people.

[Ksec]

15. Its about money. CVS wants it and I dont blame them

[Coexist]

17. that link makes it easy to send a thank you to them and KMart

[Shallah Kali]

27. PlannedParenthood is asking women to report refusals

Here:
http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/pharmacistrefusal

[realFedUp]

29. Saturday kick