Sticking up for Plan B

For many women, the availability of good contraception is not in question. From Planned Parenthood option to generic hormone birth control, it is both easy and affordable for women to find a method of preventing unwanted pregnancies that works for them.

The Plan B pill acts as an emergency contraceptive in the event that these methods fail or are unavailable. The medication is one alternative many women are thankful to have.

Usually dispensed over the counter at a pharmacy, these pills are available without a prescription to women 17 years of age and older. For girls 16 years and younger, these pills are available by prescription.

Pharmacies are legally required to stock emergency contraceptives, as they are one of the medications communities are largely accepted to need.

But a recent lawsuit in Washington is attempting to eliminate that requirement on the basis of moral objections.

The owners of Ralph’s Thriftway pharmacy, as well as two individual pharmacists, are suing the state for the right to refuse to sell the medication. They describe their fight as a “moral” one.

The franchise owners and the pharmacists have stated that it is against their beliefs to issue a drug which would cause an abortion. As such, they wish not to stock Plan B.

The State of Washington will be going up against them in court in coming months, but it is unlikely that the owners and pharmacists will win their suit. Washington state has many protective laws in place regarding reproductive rights, and these laws are solid. There will certainly be appeals, regardless of the verdict, but the case is more or less irrelevant.

What is relevant in the simple question: who is in the right?

Looking at the facts, it becomes obvious that Washington state is correct in enforcing that these pills be dispensed, whether at Ralph’s Thriftway pharmacy or elsewhere.

First of all, it is within a pharmacist’s rights to refuse to personally dispense a medication he or she objects to. This is only if that pharmacist has made clear to the management of the pharmacy that he or she will not dispense the medication and that steps have been taken to ensure that the medication will be dispensed in a timely manner regardless.

Known as conscientious objection in pharmacy, this practice is relatively common among religious pharmacists in particular and is used almost exclusively in regards to contraceptives and drugs which induce miscarriages. So the individual pharmacists in the suit would not have to dispense the emergency contraceptives in question if they chose to alert their managers of their objections.

Second, a refusal to stock or dispense emergency contraceptives would likely have results even more against the morals of those involved in the suit. By withholding a medication which can prevent an unwanted pregnancy, the pharmacists may instead cause a woman to have to seek an abortion instead.

While these same pharmacists can refuse to dispense a drug for the purpose of aborting a fetus, they cannot prevent her from going to an abortion clinic and having a procedure done.

Third, the refusal to dispense an emergency contraceptive can cause lasting harm to a woman suffering an illness which would be exacerbated by a pregnancy. Maternal morbidity—or the number of women who die as a direct result of pregnancy—is still a factor to be considered in the United States.

This also does not take into account the possible viability of a resulting fetus. Some women choose not to have their own children due to heritable genetic defects or diseases, as well as possible harm from environmental factors.

And finally, the kicker: Plan B is not an abortion drug. Plan B is essentially a condom for your ovaries and will not terminate an already existing pregnancy (despite what The Walking Dead would have you believe). Plan B has not been shown to have any discernible negative effects on existing fetuses when taken at a normal dose.

Plan B is a simple emergency contraceptive. It works by preventing a woman from ovulating. No egg means nothing for the sperm to fertilize, and as such there is never a pregnancy to abort or complicate. While there is the possibility that it may prevent a blastula (or newly fertilized egg) from implanting into the endometriol lining of the uterus, the likelihood of this is low.

The Plan B pill was created to help prevent the number of women facing unwanted pregnancies. To delegalize its sale at pharmacies would be a mistake. Whether in Washington, Oregon, or anywhere else, the pill helps women and should be dispensed.

So while the legal battle between the owners of Ralph’s and the state of Washington may continue for a long time to come, the answer to the question of whether the pills should be stocked and dispensed is a no-brainer.

For the sake of women everywhere, keep Plan B available.