West Virginia Abortion Advocates Upset Pharmacies Don’t Carry Plan B Drugs

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   May 8, 2006   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

West Virginia Abortion Advocates Upset Pharmacies Don’t Carry Plan B Drugs Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 8, 2006

Charleston, WV (LifeNews.com) — West Virginia abortion advocates have released the results of a statewide survey showing most pharmacies in the state did not carry the morning after pill, also known as Plan B. The pro-abortion group that conducted the survey says it will file complaints with a state agency about some of the pharmacies.

A pollster representing West Virginia FREE, a collection of pro-abortion groups, called all 214 West Virginia pharmacists and claimed to be a patient having a prescription for the morning after pill.

The survey found 81 percent of pharmacies did not keep the morning after pill in stock and 85 percent did not carry the Plan B drug at all, according to a Charleston Gazette report.

The pro-abortion survey also found that 7 percent of pharmacists told the pollster they have a moral or religious objection to dispensing the drug, which can sometimes cause an abortion.

Nicky Smith, of West Virginia FREE, who did the calling, said the filling of the prescription sometimes depended on which pharmacist was on duty at a particular pharmacy.

Margaret Chapman, the director of the pro-abortion group, told the Gazette it would be filing complaints with the state Pharmacy Board about pharmacists who refused to fill a prescription for the drug.

“It is not the pharmacists’ role to pass judgment," she said.

Chapman told the newspaper that, “Now that we understand the landscape and how [un]available emergency contraception is to West Virginia women, we can move forward with increasing access."

That could mean promoting legislation to make West Virginia the next to bypass the FDA and allow the drug to be sold over the counter without a doctor’s visit.

But Smith admitted to the newspaper that it appeared to her there is little demand for the morning after pill. In fact, some of the pharmacists told her that they didn’t keep the drug in stock because they were not being asked to fill prescriptions for it.

“I got the impression that women weren’t asking for it," she said after calling all the state’s pharmacies.