Walmart and Plan B (again)
Here’s a story from a Walmart employee about one of their pharmacies dropping Plan B because one of the staff members objects. They then lie when asked for it and claim it is “out of stock”. This also violates Walmart’s stated policies, but who checks anyway?
EC Access Denied: A Wal-mart pharmacy employee needs our help
For the record I am both pro-birth control and pro-having kids. I want to have kids in the context of marriage (and for my wife to be the one, technically, having them). Till then, to the extent I have a say, I would want any woman I had a relationship with to use a true contraceptive, that is, one that prevents conception, not one of the many that act the same way, whether in a Plan B morning after dose or in smaller doses spread throughout the month preventatively: Block a fertilized egg, a full and unique set of human genes, from implanting.
All that said, the pharmacy manager’s choice was wrong. Not only does it violate Wal-Mart’s policy, it expresses a puritanical attitude that is in opposition to the Western cultural tradition of letting each one’s individual conscience guide him or her. We should be fighting such puritanical urge as some subset of our Muslim neighbors begin insisting on Shariah being imposed by law. Is it a mitzvah for a rabbinical student living in an Orthodox commune to refrain from pork, which he could not get if he tried? No. Similarly for the Christian, resisting temptation to sin requires the temptation to be there. See how many Iraqi Muslims flocked to the most vile porn movies once the repressive government was removed. Someone may say he has a strong faith, but whatever it is, if it exists without challenge, its strength is likely small. The manager did the objecting pharmacist no favor in this case.
As a matter of public policy, I favor those states that allow individuals to exercise their conscience, and continue to urge supporters of Plan B to find examples where a woman really is put at risk (to the extent the natural result of her personal choice is a risk, or in cases where she has been raped) by a privately-owned pharmacy not carrying, or by a pharmacist not dispensing, Plan B.
Does anyone know WalMart’s position in it’s pharmacies in China . They have a strictly enforced one child rule. It would seem like there would be no moral dilemma there to sell these types of birth control.Just consider the record of Human Rights violations of which China has long been found guilty of-yet there seems little to no moral dilemma in doing business with them,considering the number of people who flock to buy cheap Chinese crap.
I favor people going into careers that won’t constantly challenge their consciences and won’t give them reason to force their personal beliefs down the throats of others.