Next stop on our magnificent misogyny tour is Wal-mart. Aisle 3, transfats, Aisle 10, lawnmowers assembled by underpaid children in China. And don’t forget to stop at the pharmacy for a big dose of holier-than-thou self-righteous bullshit with your prescription.
Oh, wait, they won’t fill it. No, your doctor’s penmanship is lovely, it’s just that they don’t believe in the morning after pill and it’s important that the rights of their pharmacists be respected.
No, it doesn’t matter that your doctor has prescribed it, because we know what’s best for you. If you want to get that filled you’ll have to go someplace else, someplace where they don’t mind handing out abortion pills to every teenager who asks for one.
We know it prevents conception from ever happening which yes, technically, is different than terminating a pregnancy. But really, those are small distinctions we choose to overlook. The morning after pill is immoral. And it promotes promiscuity.
This is such a load of crap. Here’s what my new fave writer Margaret Cho has to say.
If the problem is promiscuity, then why does the immense popularity of Viagra go unchecked? Doesn’t it make more sense to leave the bullets out of the gun than to try to avoid being shot? Especially when then gun is an old musket, and you have to clean it out and tamp down the gunpowder, melt down scraps of lead and pour it into a mold, wait for it to cool…only to have it take forever to finally go off?”
Hee! But score one for the League of Justice, Chicklets, because the Massachusetts state pharmacy board just ordered Wal-mart to start dispensing the morning after pill.
A small victory, as the FDA approved Plan B for sale over the counter in 1999, yet federal drug regulators still refuse to move on it. Susan Wood, director of the FDA’s Office of Women’s Health resigned in protest last fall, saying, “I can no longer serve as staff when scientific and clinical evidence, fully evaluated and recommended for approval by the professional staff here, has been overruled.”
Here in Canada, Plan B is available over the counter, even at Wal-mart. But you know how promiscuous we Canadians are.