Full Frontal Feminism_ A Young Women's Guide to Why Feminism Matters - Jessica Valenti [28]
Sounds ridiculous (and fucking annoying), but this is what actually happened to college student Amanda Phiede in 2004 in Wisconsin—and that’s just one woman’s story.2
Pharmacists all over the country have been straight-up refusing to give women birth control, even though it’s their job. And because of the introduction of something called “conscience clause laws,” they’re getting away with it. Thirteen states have introduced laws that would allow pharmacists, nurses, and other healthcare professionals to refuse to distribute medication that goes against their moral, ethical, or religious beliefs. So essentially, if a pharmacist thinks that premarital sex is wrong, they don’t have to give you your pills. If contraception is against their religion, they don’t have to dispense your medication. I don’t know about you, but when I go to the pharmacy I just want my pills, not a lecture about someone else’s morals.
By the way, notice that pharmacists aren’t refusing to give men condoms or grilling them about their marital status. The anti-sexers really only focus on women (since we’re the keepers of the all-powerful hymen, I guess).
I joke, but this is a huge deal. First it’s birth control. Next thing you know, nurses are refusing to treat gay patients because homosexuality is against their religion. It’s scary shit.
And while some states are creating laws that would force pharmacists and healthcare professionals to dispense contraception (you know, ’cause it’s their job), it’s not stopping anti-sexers from stooping to new lows.
Dan Gransinger, a pharmacist at Kmart in Scottsdale, Arizona, wrote a letter to the editor of The Arizona Republic recommending that other pharmacists who have a problem dispensing emergency contraception simply lie to their female customers:
❂ The pharmacist should just tell the patient that he is out of the medication and can order it, but it will take a week to get here. The patient will be forced to go to another pharmacy because she has to take these medicines within seventy-two hours for them to be effective. Problem solved.3
Yes, he actually wrote this. You have to love how nonchalant he is about lying. As if it’s no big deal . . . not to mention illegal.
We cannot let women be kept from their legal right to birth control! These new state laws that force pharmacists to do their jobs are a good first step, but with nutties like Gransinger around, it’s clear that laws aren’t enough. Find out about the birth control policies of your local pharmacist—make sure that women in your area aren’t being denied their right to birth control.
The Morning After
There has been way too much confusion (put out there deliberately, mind you) about what exactly EC is. Is it the abortion pill? Is it birth control? Let’s get this out of the way once and for all: Emergency contraception is not abortion.
And don’t think for a second that you’re uninformed or stupid because you didn’t know this. The same folks who are trying to make sure that you don’t have birth control are also trying to make sure that you are confused, and they are succeeding. A lot more people are against abortion than birth control. If they can make a form of birth control seem like a form of abortion, then they’re closer to their goal of banning all birth control. They’re doing it in baby steps.
Emergency contraception, also called the morning-after pill, is basically a large dose of birth control pills. It prevents you from getting pregnant; it doesn’t end an existing pregnancy. EC will stop an egg from leaving the ovary, stop sperm from meeting the egg, or prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in your uterus. Despite the bullshit to the contrary, EC doesn’t end pregnancy; it stops pregnancy from happening. Medical abortion—which you can find out about at the end of this chapter—is something completely different. Glad we have that out of the way.
In addition