What IS the Wal-Mart policy on Preven?
The application of it is probably neither as good nor bad as you think
From, The Kentucky Citizen Digest, May/June, 2001.

The Federal Drug Administration in June of 1999 approved Preven, a prescription drug that if taken within 72 hours after intercourse prevents a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterine wall.  Immediately both pro-life and pro-choice groups sprang into action.  Planned Parenthood began commercial campaigns offering the drug, while  Pregnancy Care Centers and other pro-life groups stepped up their efforts to inform the public that Preven is not a contraceptive, but is actually an abor-tifacient.

Adding fuel to the fire was an announcement by a Wal-Mart spokesman that its stores would not sell Preven.  Then e-mails began to flow.  Planned Parenthood called for a boycott of Wal-Mart, while pro-lifers encouraged support of Wal-Mart’s decision.  The battle was on.

Wal-Mart contended that its 1998 decision not to offer Preven was based on a “variety of business considerations” and was not “a moral stance against the drug.”  Planned Parenthood, however, accused Wal-Mart of making the drug less accessible to girls from rural areas who might have to travel long distances to obtain it.  With Planned Parenthood’s instigation, a boycott looked imminent.

Wal-Mart then softened its original position, saying that although the store’s pharmacies would not fill Preven prescriptions, they would refer customers to other nearby pharmacies who would.  This drew praise from Planned Parenthood.

In response to rumors that customers would also be referred to Planned Parenthood itself, The Family Foundation initiated a simple investigation.

A researcher with The Foundation called all 59 Wal-Mart stores in Kentucky twice.  With the first call, the Wal-Mart pharmacist was asked if the store sold the “morning after pill,” Preven’s nickname.  In the second call, the pharmacist was asked whether “Preven” was sold, or whether he or she could make a referral to someone who did sell it.

When the “morning-after pill” was mentioned, the clerk knew what to look for. When asked for “Preven,” often the pharmacist was unfamiliar with the name, sometimes searching shelves or data banks for stock or information.  Many asked what the drug did.

Interestingly, when asked for the “morning after pill,” 11 of the pharmacists referred the caller to a doctor, hospital, or health department.  When asked for “Preven,” only one referred the caller to a doctor, saying she couldn’t remember if doctor approval was necessary in order to obtain Preven, or if she were confusing such regulations with those that applied to RU-486.  Confusion over the two names of the same drug illustrates an apparent  lack of knowledge even among professional pharmacists.

Jessica Mosier is a spokesperson for Wal-Mart.  “Wal-Mart’s priority is to take care of the customer.  In this case we do that by referring them to the pharmacy in their area that will fill the prescription,” she said.

In roughly one-third of the calls, the pharmacist did make a general referral to another store.  However, the referral was just friendly customer service suggesting that our researcher “might try ____ or ____.”  The pharmacist did not actually know who sold the drug.  No referrals were made to Planned Parenthood.

All this points to the fact that businesses and pharmacists are ambivalent and less than knowledgeable about dispensing abortifacients.  If this is true, it means the door is still open to persuade people that Preven and other such drugs are not healers, but killers.

One observer privy to the facts of this research mused, “Perhaps Wal-Mart should be a little less concerned about falling prices and more concerned with the falling value of human life.”

It is clear that Wal-Mart does not sell Preven.  It is clear that many of their stores do not refer to other retailers who do.  And Right to Life groups point out that this is good, because whether a store distributes Preven themselves or refers their customers to those who do  –  unborn babies lose their lives, and this costs all of us dearly.
 
 

Key Family Foundation Contacts: Kent Ostrander, Executive Director Martin Cothran, Senior Associate Policy Analyst