Texas Lawmaker Wants Pharmacies to Educate Customers on Plan B Drug

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Nov 22, 2006   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Texas Lawmaker Wants Pharmacies to Educate Customers on Plan B Drug

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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 22
, 2006

Austin, TX (LifeNews.com) — A Texas lawmaker has a response for the Food and Drug Administration, which ruled in August that the morning after pill could be sold over the counter at pharmacies. The proposed legislation would require pharmacies posting a sign telling potential customers that the drug could work as an abortion agent.

The sing would be 18×24 inches in size and would include an explanation saying the Plan B drug can work as an abortion pill by sometimes preventing the ability of a human embryo to start the growth process inside her mother’s womb.

Elizabeth Graham of Texas Right to Life told KHOU-TV that human life "does begin at fertilization" when a spem and egg meeting and produce a unique human being.

"I think Rep. Corte’s intention is to make sure that women understand if the egg has already been fertilized they could be at risk of undergoing a chemical abortion," she told the CBS television station.

The law would also require pharmacies to keep track records for two years of who purchased the morning after pills.

Abortion advocates indicate they will strongly oppose the legislation.

"It’s ideology. It is not at all based on fact or science," Rochelle Tafolla with Planned Parenthood, told KHOU-TV. "This is a safe and effective medication. Women should have access to it."

Planned Parenthood began selling the drug without a prescription on Monday.

Despite Tafolla’s objection, pharmacists would likely welcome the legislation.

A December 2005 poll conducted by HCD Research of Flemington, New Jersey, surveyed 859 pharmacists and found 69 percent of pharmacists believe they should have the ability to decline filling prescriptions for the morning after pill.

The firm conducted the poll after news of four Illinois pharmacists fired from Walgreens stores near St. Louis after they said they would not fill orders for the Plan B drug because of their views on it.

HCD Research found that just 29 percent of those pharmacists polled believed Walgreens was justified in putting the pharmacists on unpaid leave.

Related web sites:
Texas Right to Life – https://www.texasrighttolife.org