Pro-Life Pharmacies Endanger Women's Health

You’d think birth control pills and condoms would be staple pharmacy items, but it looks like this may no longer be the case – at least not in Virginia where a pharmacy opening next Tuesday in a Chantilly shopping center will carry neither, not to mention the “morning after pill,” cigarettes, or pornographic magazines.

Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy, the pharmacy in question, has declared that it will be a pro-life business that does not provide these items on the basis of morality. They also argue that birth control and condoms can endanger a woman’s health and cause abortion. As it turns out this logic is completely off base. Birth control methods actually promote health by protecting women and men from contracting STDs and HIV / AIDS and from having unplanned pregnancies that ultimately reduce the need for abortion.

Refusing to stock these essential health care items places the political agenda of the pro-life movement squarely before a woman’s right to health. NARAL Pro-Choice America’s Virginia branch has asked opponents to boycott the store saying, “Birth control is basic health care for women.”

Ain’t that the truth! A pharmacist’s job is to look after its customer’s well being - not become an obstacle to their health.