An Alarming Lack of Plan B® Access Revealed
SEATTLE – NARAL Pro-Choice Washington was joined by Darcy Burner, Trudi Inslee, George Fearing, and women who have been denied Plan B® emergency contraception at a press conference this morning to reveal the results of NARAL’s Emergency Contraception Access Project. NARAL volunteers conducted an exhaustive survey of all the pharmacies statewide to determine which ones stock and dispense Plan B® emergency contraception, and which ones do not.
“The results are staggering. I was expecting to uncover pharmacies that do not provide Plan B®, but I did not expect to find this many,” said Karen Cooper, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington. The survey found that more than one in ten pharmacies across the state do not stock or have pharmacists who refuse to dispense Plan B®.
“This project really shows that this issue is much bigger than Ralph’s Thriftway in Olympia, and affects countless more women statewide,” Cooper added.
Young women who had been refused Plan B® at their local pharmacies also spoke about their experiences. Trina Stout of Seattle said of her treatment at the pharmacy counter, “This experience left me shaken, upset, and worried for the other women who are being refused health care.”
Trudi Inslee, wife of Rep. Jay Inslee (D-1) and member of the NARAL Pro-Choice Washington Foundation Board of Directors, spoke to Rep. Inslee’s support of access to reproductive health care and the importance of this issue in his district. “This is not about the preferences of individual pharmacists or pharmacy owners. It is about women’s access to the medications they need when they need them—without hassle, delay or judgment,” Inslee said.
Darcy Burner, candidate for Congress in the 8th district, talked about Rep. Dave Reichert’s (R-8) abysmal record on choice and contraception access, adding that “it is unacceptable for a pharmacist or a politician to stand in between a woman and her health care needs.”
George Fearing, congressional candidate in the 4th district, addressed the burden of having to track down a pharmacy that will provide a needed medication. “Whether it is across the county, across the city, or even across the street, no woman should have to go on a wild goose chase to track down the medication she needs, all the while re-telling her personal business to strangers behind the counter,” he said.
Cooper also distributed polling data on this issue. In a statewide poll of Washington voters conducted in January 2008, 70% of all respondents said that they thought pharmacies should be required to fill all valid prescriptions. Furthermore, 58% said they thought it was unacceptable for patients to have to go to multiple pharmacies in order to get the medications they need.
NARAL Pro-Choice Washington is now launching the next phase of its grassroots plan to expand Plan B® access, which includes an educational component to help ensure that all pharmacists and pharmacy owners know the facts about Plan B®.
Download a fact sheet on the Emergency Contraception Project: http://www.prochoicewashington.org/assets/files/ecaccessprojectfactsheet.pdf
Download an interactive map of the pharmacies in Washington that do and do not provide Plan B®: http://www.prochoicewashington.org/issues/pharmmap.shtml
NARAL Pro-Choice Washington is the leading grassroots pro-choice advocacy organization in Washington State. NARAL Pro-Choice Washington works to protect every woman’s right to access the full range of reproductive health options, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing legal abortion. NARAL Pro-Choice Washington is the state affiliate of NARAL Pro-Choice America.
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