Boycott Walgreens Until Fired Pharmacists are Reinstated
A Southern Illinois abortion foe, backed by her local Catholic diocese, is asking consumers to pull their prescriptions from Walgreens until four pharmacists, on unpaid leave for refusing to agree to fill orders for the morning-after contraceptive pill, are reinstated.
Ann Polka, manager for the Belleville Diocese's Project Rachel, a post-abortion healing program, is also asking regional residents to refrain from doing other shopping at the chain's stores.
"This is an unjust action," Polka told the Belleville, Illinois, News-Democrat. "They are being let go because they couldn't in good conscience dispense the drugs."
At issue is the Plan B morning-after contraceptive – not to be confused with RU486, the abortion pill used to terminate later-term pregnancies. Plan B contraceptives are essentially very high, multiple dosages of birth-control pills taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex to prevent ovulation or implantation. If ovulation is prevented, no egg is fertilized and no pregnancy occurs. But if ovulation has taken place and the egg is fertilized, the morning-after pill works to block implantation by the early embryo in the mother's womb. It is aborted, making dispensing prescriptions for the pill a matter of conscience for pro-life pharmacists.
Walgreens, in a statement following last Monday's suspensions, defended its action saying the company's policy is consistent with an Illinois state rule mandating pharmacists fill prescriptions without delay.
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich filed an emergency rule April 1 requiring pharmacies to honor all Food and Drug Administration-approved contraception prescriptions. The rule is the only one of its kind in the U.S. and became permanent on Aug. 1.
"If a woman has a prescription for contraceptives, they ought to be filling that," Blagojevich told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, adding that the pharmacists' suspensions were unfortunate but not as important as protecting women's rights.
"This (rule) is unjustly imposed on Illinois by Rod Blagojevich," Polka said. "It's puzzling to me that pharmacists do not have a discretionary power." [Entire Story]
I thank God I am no longer living in IL, which is under the dictation of Governor Blagojevich, who not only serves in an executive capacity, but imposes his pro-death politics and laws upon the people of the state -- in this case, it is the pharmacists whose right to religious beliefs and moral convictions he is restricting. He speaks about women's rights here -- but what about the child's right to life? What about the pharmacist's right not to be an accomplice in the murder of that child? I really don't understand it. Pharmacists have no choice, but must abide by the mores of the culture of death or be forced to move out of the state. I have been boycotting Walgreens ever since I heard that they were planning to fire any pharmacist who did not abide by this ridiculous law and I encourage anyone who is pro-life to do the same.
Ann Polka, manager for the Belleville Diocese's Project Rachel, a post-abortion healing program, is also asking regional residents to refrain from doing other shopping at the chain's stores.
"This is an unjust action," Polka told the Belleville, Illinois, News-Democrat. "They are being let go because they couldn't in good conscience dispense the drugs."
At issue is the Plan B morning-after contraceptive – not to be confused with RU486, the abortion pill used to terminate later-term pregnancies. Plan B contraceptives are essentially very high, multiple dosages of birth-control pills taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex to prevent ovulation or implantation. If ovulation is prevented, no egg is fertilized and no pregnancy occurs. But if ovulation has taken place and the egg is fertilized, the morning-after pill works to block implantation by the early embryo in the mother's womb. It is aborted, making dispensing prescriptions for the pill a matter of conscience for pro-life pharmacists.
Walgreens, in a statement following last Monday's suspensions, defended its action saying the company's policy is consistent with an Illinois state rule mandating pharmacists fill prescriptions without delay.
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich filed an emergency rule April 1 requiring pharmacies to honor all Food and Drug Administration-approved contraception prescriptions. The rule is the only one of its kind in the U.S. and became permanent on Aug. 1.
"If a woman has a prescription for contraceptives, they ought to be filling that," Blagojevich told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, adding that the pharmacists' suspensions were unfortunate but not as important as protecting women's rights.
"This (rule) is unjustly imposed on Illinois by Rod Blagojevich," Polka said. "It's puzzling to me that pharmacists do not have a discretionary power." [Entire Story]
I thank God I am no longer living in IL, which is under the dictation of Governor Blagojevich, who not only serves in an executive capacity, but imposes his pro-death politics and laws upon the people of the state -- in this case, it is the pharmacists whose right to religious beliefs and moral convictions he is restricting. He speaks about women's rights here -- but what about the child's right to life? What about the pharmacist's right not to be an accomplice in the murder of that child? I really don't understand it. Pharmacists have no choice, but must abide by the mores of the culture of death or be forced to move out of the state. I have been boycotting Walgreens ever since I heard that they were planning to fire any pharmacist who did not abide by this ridiculous law and I encourage anyone who is pro-life to do the same.
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