[Pflienews] PharmFacts E-News Update: WaPo prescribes bias for growing pharmacy trend, abortoholics howl
PFLI PharmAid Center
pfli at pfli.org
Mon Jun 16 17:18:02 MDT 2008
*PharmFacts E-News Update -- 16 Jun 2008 AD
*http://newsbusters.org/blogs/ken-shepherd/2008/06/16/wapo-prescribes-bias-story-pro-life-pharmacy
WaPo Prescribes Bias in Story on Pro-life Pharmacy
Photo of Ken Shepherd. <http://newsbusters.org/user/3>
By Ken Shepherd <http://newsbusters.org/bios/ken-shepherd.html> | June
16, 2008 - 11:50 ET
On the one hand, I have to give the Washington Post some credit for its
biased June 16 story about a new pro-life pharmacy set to open in
northern Virginia this summer. Even with its less-than-fair treatment,
it informs pro-life readers of a new pharmacy they may wish to
patronize. Of course the store opening is worthy of news coverage for a
number of reasons, such as the intersection of faith and professional
ethics in health care, but unfortunately, staffer Rob Stein started
right off the bat slanting coverage in a way to disparage the enterprise.
Take, for example, Stein's lead paragraph in "'Pro-Life' Drugstores
Market Beliefs: No Contraceptives for Chantilly Shop.
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/15/AR2008061502180.html>":
Pro-life DMC pharmacist-manager, Robert Semler, RPh
When DMC Pharmacy opens this summer on Route 50 in Chantilly, the
shelves will be stocked with allergy remedies, pain relievers,
antiseptic ointments and almost everything else sold in any
drugstore. But anyone who wants condoms, birth control pills or the
Plan B emergency 'contraceptive' will be turned away.
"Turned away"? Really? It's not like the customers seeking condoms or
birth control will be blacklisted, they just won't find those items in
stock, and are more than free to purchase cold medicine, rubbing
alcohol, or any number of over-the-counter or prescription items at the
store.
Of course, one might argue, Stein's use of "turned away" might not be
the best choice of words, but it's not like he meant to evince negative
sentiments towards DMC or its operator Robert Semler. Yet if that were
the case, why did Stein place in dismissive quote marks terms like
pro-life and right of conscience?:
That's because the drugstore, located in a typical shopping plaza
featuring a Ruby Tuesday, a Papa John's and a Kmart, will be a
"pro-life pharmacy" -- meaning, among other things, that it will
eschew all contraceptives.
The pharmacy is one of a small but growing number of drugstores
around the country that have become the latest front in a conflict
pitting patients' rights against those of health-care workers who
assert a "right of conscience" to refuse to provide care or products
that they find objectionable.
Stein waited until just after the jump in paragraph five to find
"critics" who "say the stores could create dangerous obstacles for women
seeking legal, safe and widely used birth control methods."
Stein's first critic is "Marcia Greenberger of the National Women's Law
Center," which Stein simply calls "a Washington advocacy group,"
ignoring NWLC's pro-choice bent. Here's what NWLC has to say about its
advocacy for expanded access to legal abortion
<http://www.nwlc.org/display.cfm?section=ReproductiveChoices>:
For more than three decades, the Center has worked to preserve
women's right to make their own reproductive choices. Reproductive
health care must be both available and affordable for women to lead
healthy and productive lives.
Our work to prevent unintended pregnancy includes efforts to
increase and protect access to contraception, including emergency
contraception. The Center is at the forefront of efforts to expand
access for low-income women through Medicaid, and through private
insurance coverage of contraception.
In addition, the Center address barriers to reproductive health care
access, such as religious restrictions on reproductive health
services, including pharmacist refusals to provide contraception.
The Center protects women's right to safe, legal abortion, which
includes judicial nominations advocacy to ensure that the courts do
not undermine the right to choose.
The Center also opposes attempts to criminalize the behavior of
pregnant women. The troubling trend of prosecuting women for drug
use during pregnancy only discourages women from seeking prenatal
care, and results in less healthy mothers and babies.
Stein continued by noting the rise of pro-life pharmacies in the context
of other medical professionals exercising their religiously informed
consciences:
The pharmacies are emerging at a time when a variety of health-care
workers are refusing to perform medical procedures they find
objectionable. Fertility doctors have refused to inseminate gay
women. Ambulance drivers have refused to transport patients for
abortions. Anesthesiologists have refused to assist in sterilizations.
Of course while doctors, ambulance drivers, and anesthesiologists may
have more restrictions on what they can or cannot do on the job
vis-a-vis their religious objections, it's another matter entirely to
open a private pharmacy, like DMC, that doesn't stock certain drugs or
contraceptives in the first place. Even so, Stein jumped immediately for
describing how pro-life pharmacies generally operate to finding a critic
to lambaste the decision of these private businesses on what not to stock:
Some pro-life pharmacies are identical to typical drugstores except
that they do not stock some or all forms of contraception. Others
also refuse to sell tobacco, rolling papers or pornography. Many
offer "alternative" products, including individually compounded
prescription drugs, as well as vitamins and homeopathic and herbal
remedies.
"We try to practice pharmacy in a way that we feel is best to help
our community and promote healthy lifestyles," said Lloyd Duplantis,
who owns Lloyd's Remedies in Gray, La., and is a deacon in his
Catholic church. "After researching the science behind steroidal
contraceptives, I decided they could hurt the woman and possibly
hurt her unborn child. I decided to opt out."
Some critics question how such pharmacies justify carrying drugs,
such as Viagra, for male reproductive issues, but not those for women.
"Why do you care about the sexual health of men but not women?"
asked Anita L. Nelson, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at
the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "If he gets his Viagra,
why can't she get her contraception?"
At the very least, pro-lifers of every religious affiliation who live
near Chantilly, Virginia, can thank the Post for the heads-up about a
new pharmacy that respects and cherishes their beliefs. Hopefully DMC
Pharamcy will enjoy heavy patronage from such customers thanks in part
to free publicity from the Post.
It is unfortunate, however, that the paper blew an opportunity to
present the story in a more balanced manner.
/---Ken Shepherd is Managing Editor of NewsBusters/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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