Open Letter to Wal Mart Management To Wal Mart management: Planned Parenthood can possibly attempt to sue Wal mart for failing to stock the morning after pill. However it cannot obtain the big financial judgments and out-sized punitive damages possible in other types of lawsuits which have plagued Wal mart. To anyone who reads this, those large damages payed out when Wal mart loses a lawsuit affect your own salary, and the ability to get jobs done with sufficient number of employees available. I am not among these whacko Wal mart haters who cannot tolerate success on a large scale. Rather, I am sad to see Wal mart , along with the other pharmacy chains, committing health care suicide by means of the morning after pill. Two things to remember: Lawyers are numerous and hungry. The shame has gone out of abortion, both surgical and chemical. Because of this, the abortionists are now being sued by their female victims (sometimes called patients). This is a fairly new phenomenon. Also the pharmaceutical manufacturers of abortion drugs and birth control pills are being sued for damages suffered by patients who have used the drugs. The morning after pill is marketed under false representation of its safety and efficacy. Analysts have concluded that it is no more effective than the withdrawal method of birth control. In addition, those selling the MAP over the counter to men will be open to the same nature of lawsuits to which those selling guns have been subjected. There will be liability for abuse of the drug. Drugs of this class are very popular with sex offenders and child abusers world wide. The drug is not well tested in the younger populations who will be receiving it. Liability of exogenous hormones for all women is becoming more and more apparent. Lastly, from my own experience in your pharmacies and others, people do not prefer to buy their treatments for STDs at their usual community pharmacy. It is probable that the identification requirement, and the possibility of counseling will continue to make MAP a slow mover at most of the Walmart locations. Planned Parenthood will continue to obtain MAP at a cost of ~$5.00 and sell it at retail for about $40, a thing not possible for other pharmacy retailers. In order to continue the fearful response to Planned Parenthood, Walmart may decide to stock MAP in excess of the usual use pattern to avoid ever being out of stock, and attend to the utilization or return of short dated stock. No such standard of a need-to-stock applies to the life saving drugs. It will be interesting to see how far the fear of Planned Parenthood will drive the pharmacy retailers, and how much financial liability they are able to assume as a result. Hoping that Wal mart wakes up to its bottom line pretty soon. Karen L. Brauer MS, RPh