I tell you all the time, It’s none of your business!

The newest means of attacking women’s reproductive rights in this country of ours is to promote the idea that pharmacists have the right to morally object to dispensing the contraceptives their customers seek. While some may argue that a business owner is allowed the power to pass such judgments & withhold birth control or morning after pills, I must point out the fact that pharmacists have a duty to the public. They are licensed by the state. They are given the power to legally dispense drugs by the state & have a virtual monopoly on the industry granted to them by the state. Therefore, if the contraceptive in question is legal in the state they practice in, they must be required to distribute the pharmaceutical to citizens of that state. Otherwise, they are not fulfilling the duty that the state (and it’s residents) expects them to & the privilege of running a pharmacy that receives Medi-Cal payments or other state sponsored health benefit payments should be revoked. The government should not be allowed to distribute our tax dollars to pharmacies that refuse to service the entire community. Just like we don’t give federal or state monies to educational institutions that discriminate based on race or gender and we don’t give religious institutions special tax-exempt status if they are used as political machinery, we should not financially support businesses that discriminate based on the fertility status of one’s uterus or those businesses being used as obvious political tools. As health care professionals, pharmacists have accepted the responsibility to help patients, regardless of their personal takes on the patient’s prescriptions. They are the only folks able to dole out the meds & that shouldn’t make them gate-keepers to America’s fertility options.

Besides, it’s just plain shitty to be a Contraceptive Nazi. It’s discrimination towards women, since there isn’t an effective male pill @ this point & that leaves us gals as the victims in this situation (unless you count the guys that get screwed into fathering an unwanted child because their partners don’t have access to birth control pills). After all, a hell of a lot of women in this country are on one B.C. form or another, 95% of American women use contraceptives @ some point during their breeding years and 50% of them use pharmaceutical methods.* The World Health Organization & slews of other national & international health groups have identified access to birth control as a critical component of basic health care for women. That being said, don’t you think it is a total dick-move to ignore the basic needs of such a large group of people? Besides medicinal marijuana users, who else would face this kind of crap? Nearly every state has a law on the books to protect citizens from sex discrimination when they seek goods or services in establishments that serve the public. Pharmacies are such a place & denying women B.C. is clearly a violation of these protections.

It’s discrimination against poorer women & those in rural areas, that might mot have the means to travel elsewhere to get their prescriptions filled. Some insurance plans require women to use specific pharmacies if their prescriptions are to be covered & if the woman is forced to get her pills from another pharmacy, she’ll pay an arm & a leg (maybe a fetus). Po’ folks ain’t got the budget for that kind of bullshit. Since 1994, unintended pregnancy rates have shot up by 29% for poor American women and they are now four times as likely to have an unplanned pregnancy, five times as likely to have an unintended birth, and more than three times as likely to have an abortion than her wealthier counterparts.** Is it really a great idea to further limit their access to contraceptives? That would only increase the number of unwanted children & abortions among the lower economic classes, all because some dick thinks the pill is a slight against God! WTF? 

It’s discrimination against rape victims in need of the 72-hour pill, against ladies that were unlucky enough to be on the receiving end of a broken condom’s leakage, and it’s discrimination against the many citizens that might need emergency contraceptives because the risky lovin’ of last night just wasn’t worth it this morning. EC’s effectiveness decreases with time (it’s most potent taken 12 hours after the ‘security breach’) and if a pharmacist denies a patient’s request, they effectively increase the possibility that she will become pregnant against her will. Sort of ‘Second Hand Rape’, if you will. The truth is, sometimes a bitch gotta’ get her E.C. on & who the fuck do these pharmacists think they are to decide when & if she get’s knocked up? If we don’t condone husbands, boyfriends, families, or rapists dictating the reproductive status of women in this country, we sure as fuck shouldn’t allow some glorified drug pusher to do so.

And that’s what the fuck I’m talking about.

* According to Planned Parenthood

** According to The Guttmacher Institute

Here’s femininsting’s latest Friday Feminist Fuck You addressing the subject (the source of this post’s inspiration, by the way). Can I just say how fitting using Salt n’ Pepa’s “None of Your Business” at the close of this vlog is?:

And for further information on the topic & what you can do about it, peep the following sites.

ACLU's Reproductive Freedom's Page

The Guttmacher Institute

The Center for Reproductive Rights

Planned Parenthood

The National Women's Law Center

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