Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, announced March 3 that all of its pharmacies would begin stocking “Plan B,” an “emergency contraceptive” with abortion-causing properties. Wal-Mart had been the largest chain store that did not sell the controversial drug nationwide before its policy reversal, which will take effect March 20.
The action followed decisions by two states requiring Plan B to be sold in Wal-Mart stores and a campaign by abortion rights organizations calling for a policy change.
The decision means that at least the top four sellers of pharmaceutical products in the United States all stock Plan B. In 2004, Walgreen ranked first in pharmacy sales, with CVS, Wal-Mart and Rite Aid in order from second to fourth. The Wal-Mart action will reduce dramatically options for some pro-life Americans who seek to shop at pharmacies that do not sell “emergency contraceptives.” With more than 3,000 pharmacies nationwide, Wal-Mart operates in some communities where there are few alternatives.
Plan B, as well as another “morning-after” pill known as Preven, is basically a heavier dose of birth control pills. Under the regimen, a woman takes two pills within 72 hours of sexual intercourse and another dose 12 hours later. The “morning-after” pill not only works to restrict ovulation in a woman, but it can act after conception, thereby causing an abortion, pro-lifers point out. The method can block implantation of an embryo in the uterine wall.
Previously, Wal-Mart stocked Plan B only in its pharmacies in Illinois and Massachusetts, where it was required. The Wal-Mart announcement of its policy change came less than three weeks after the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy voted Feb. 14 to require the chain to stock the product. After the Massachusetts action, Wal-Mart said it was re-evaluating its policy nationwide.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal ruled March 2 that the state’s insurance plan for its 188,000 employees and retirees should not cover prescriptions at Wal-Mart unless the chain stocks the “morning-after” pill, the Associated Press reported.
“We expect more states to require us to sell emergency contraceptives in the months ahead,” said Ron Comiuk, Wal-Mart’s vice president of pharmacy, in a written release. “Because of this, and the fact that this is (approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration), we feel it is difficult to justify being the country’s only major pharmacy chain not selling it.”