Victory! Washington Board of Pharmacy Stands Up to Contraception Opponents

by Alex DiBranco · 2010-12-23 06:00:00 UTC
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In November, the Washington State Board of Pharmacy was ready to capitulate to pharmacies who threatened a big bad lawsuit if they weren't permitted to refuse to dispense emergency contraception (EC). Never mind that these pharmacies had a weak case; the Board didn't want to shell out any money to defend women's contraceptive access, so they were all ready to give in. But concerned Change.org members, Washington state residents, and NARAL Pro-Choice Washington took advantage of the public comments period to let the Board know just what they thought of that kind of spineless behavior. And their voices were heard.

Fellow Women's Rights blogger Amie Newman reports on RH Reality Check that, last week, the Board of Pharmacy voted that there would be no rule change, and women will retain access to legal drugs at any pharmacy in the state. Under the preserved rules, any individual pharmacist may refuse to dispense a given drug on grounds of their "conscience," but the pharmacy as a whole must have somebody willing to dispense the item in their place. This latter regulation is what a group of pharmacies led by Ralph's Thriftway wanted to change, so that an entire pharmacy could bear the "no EC here" stamp.

Since Plan B emergency contraception is a time-sensitive drug, barring people from purchasing this at a number of pharmacies in the state could cost many women the opportunity to protect themselves against unwanted pregnancy. And though EC was the main target of this push by pharmacies claiming a "moral" opposition, the proposed change would have allowed them to refuse to dispense any legal drug to any person they didn't feel like serving. One of the concerns Newman brought up along these lines would be a pharmacist refusing to dispense HIV/AIDS medication to a gay person out of homophobia.

With over 80% of the 5,300 comments directed at the Board of Pharmacy being registered in opposition to changing the rule on contraception access, including a couple hundred emails from Change.org members signing a petition from NARAL Washington, it seems clear that the outpouring of criticism pushed the Board members to do an about-face. And though the pharmacies plan to go through with their threatened law suit, women's rights legal defenders feel confident that the current rule will stand up in court.

Photo credit: Michael Lemmon

Alex DiBranco is a Change.org Editor who has worked for the Nation, Political Research Associates, and the Center for American Progress. She is now based in New York City.

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