a follow-up to my previous post

[lagilman]

Got this in the mail when I logged in. Copy, paste and repost at will. And ACT, people.


ACT FOR CHANGE ACTIVISM UPDATE: March 29, 2005

ActForChange and Working Assets are proud to bring you an urgent alert from NARAL Pro-Choice America, the leading national advocate for
personal privacy and a woman's right to choose. This urgent action calls on our nation's biggest pharmacies to ensure that they fill
women's prescriptions for birth control, including the morning-after pill. It may seem like common sense to you and me, but in as many as
20 states, pharmacies can refuse to fill such prescriptions.

NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation is one of the 50 outstanding nonprofits being supported by ActForChange's parent company, Working
Assets.

http://act.actforchange.com/cgi-bin7/DM/y/eejp0BBkl60Okb0jFt0E6

This year we're proud to all be working together in support of reproductive freedom.

I urge you to take action below in support of women's reproductive rights. Together, we are making a difference.

Jennifer Willis
Director, ActForChange.com
________________________________________

Dear ActForChange Member,

It usually happens like this: a woman goes to her doctor and receives her birth control prescription, and then gets it filled
at the pharmacy. Right? Wrong. Welcome to the anti-choice movement's latest - and most insidious - attack on a woman's right to
choose.

Here's what's happening: In as many as 20 states, pharmacies are able to refuse to fill women's prescriptions for contraception - including
the morning-after pill.

It's truly outrageous. When a woman and her doctor decide that a prescription for contraception is in the woman's best interest, a
third party has no right to override that decision. Pharmacies must ensure that their customers get their doctor-prescribed medication
without delay or inconvenience.

To tell our nation's biggest pharmacies - Wal-Mart, CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens and Eckerd - not to stand between a woman and her
physician. Click below:

http://act.actforchange.com/cgi-bin7/DM/y/eejp0BBkl60Okb0xCR0Ei

We know that access to birth control prevents unintended pregnancies and reduces the need for abortion. So, it makes no sense that
politicians and pharmacies are making it harder for women to get their pills instead of making them more accessible.

Get outraged at this intrusion into medical privacy, and join NARAL Pro-Choice America in ensuring that our pharmacies fill women's birth
control prescriptions.

To learn more and sign the letter to pharmacies, click below:

http://act.actforchange.com/cgi-bin7/DM/y/eejp0BBkl60Okb0xCR0Ei

Sincerely,
Nancy Keenan, President
NARAL Pro-Choice America

Please forward this newsletter to your friends and help spread the word about this important campaign!

Comments

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

Cut, pasted, and passed along, while I alternately hyperventilate and bash my head against the desk. I mean, really. The only thing I can think is: WTF? I'm an adult. Why should I be lectured about my private decisions?

Then again, it does seem that the age of Consensual Crimes is pretty much in full flower.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Done. This sort of thing boggles my mind.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I urge people to write their own letters rather than send form letters. Companies can discount form letters as coming from spambots - particularly if they get masses of them - whereas "I will no longer shop at my local Wal-Mart at [address] because it is Wal-Mart's policy to permit a pharmacist to practice medicine without a license by denying me properly prescribed and legal medicines. I know about this appalling policy because I wrote to your customer service email [address] on [date]. As long as you put the wishes of your employees over the needs of your customers, I will spend my money elsewhere. You do not deserve my patronage and you betray the communities in which your stores are based as long as Wal-Mart sees fit to second guess the decisions between a woman and her doctor." is undeniably a letter from a real and really pissed off ex-customer.

By the way, that IS Squallmart policy; someone on ljforchoice wrote their HQ and got back an automated response bragging that they do not stock emergency contraceptives and they permit their pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions.

There are rumblings on LJ of a class-action suit being brought against such pharmacies. Since they cannot point to equivalent drugs being withheld from men, I'm betting sexual discrimination suits would also work... not that Wal Mart has ever shied away from sex descrimination before!

[neadods.livejournal.com]

PS - radical doctors are handing out prescriptions for the morning after pill. My advice is to find one - there are several in NYC - and get the thing before you need it. Which reminds me, my 'scrip is up soon and I want a refill to tide me over until I get to Ontario, which I think sells it over the counter like a civilized country should.

[house-draven.livejournal.com]

Done. This is truly insanity.

[windrose.livejournal.com]

Copied and reposted.

Did I mention Canada is looking better and better every day?

[hoosier-red.livejournal.com]

I'm already a member of NARAL so none of this surprises me, but I did sign the petition. I also have to go in soon and get my first BC prescription filled -- as a Texas resident, this should be interesting (and oh, believe me, if they don't fill it or won't give me the scrip back, they are going to be extremely sorry they did so).

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

On a related item, I know of many insurance companies that will glady cover men's Viagra scripts, but will not cover birth control; some won't even cover OB/GYN visits at all. Tell me there's not a gender equality issue in health coverage? I'm sure the CEOs of these insurance companies, or the ones behind pharmacy regulations making up these rules aren't women---I'd hope not at least.
-=Jeff=-

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

You and me both.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Done--with edits.

[lagilman]

Jeff,

you got names of specific insurance companies? I'd love for a direction in which to point my ire...

[karistan.livejournal.com]

Copy, pasted, reposted, and Acted... with some other helpful links provided. Am I livid? Damn straight.

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

Not on hand, but give me a day and I will inundate you with directions on where to point your ire...
-=Jeff=-

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

Well two google queries later and a slew of information to begin pointing your ire. The first google query link (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=health+insurance+cover+viagra+birth+control) will show you plenty of initiatives to get health insurance companies to cover women's birth control and OB/GYN visits without heavy co-payments or outright payment for pills or visits (who needs PAPS anyway?Let the cells grow cancerous?!). A lot of the articles also report that these law making initiatives (the first article in this query points to an article dated TODAY and state legislation being passed only now) are being stopped head on by the Catholic Church and similarly related Catholic activist groups.
This second google (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=gender+inequality+health+care+united+states) query was done using the words women, healthcare, and inequality. The first link that pops up is a technical paper drafted for the World Health Organization, you can surf through the WHO for resolutions and drafts that have been passed and addressed on the floor of the UN discussing Healthcare gender-inequalities for; yes, even rich countries like the US.
This should get your ire pointed in the right direction...
-=Jeff=-

[karistan.livejournal.com]

Thought you might be interested in this:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BIRTH_CONTROL_GOVERNOR?SITE=CAWOO&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Looks like someone's got some sense.