RI NOW Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 29, 2005

Rhode Island NOW (RI NOW) joins activists across the country today in a nationwide day of action, demanding that emergency contraception (EC) be made available to all women, without a prescription.

“It is disappointing, to say the least, that after promising a decision on this matter by September 1, the FDA has yet again delayed its decision on broadening access to EC,” said Meaghan Lamarre, President of RI NOW, “and it is disturbing that any forthcoming decision to make EC available over-the-counter will exclude women under the age of 17. EC is a proven safe and effective method of preventing unplanned pregnancy, and should be available to all women without restrictions.”

“Given the recent incident of a pharmacist at a CVS in Coventry refusing to fill a prescription for Plan B,” continued Lamarre, “Rhode Islanders are especially concerned about women’s unrestricted access to emergency contraception. As we wait for a clarification of CVS’s policy on this issue, we are reminded of how important it is that the FDA allow EC to be sold over-the-counter.”

NOW’s actions on August 30 are part of the organization’s long term commitment to accessible, affordable and comprehensive women’s health care. Emergency contraception is safe and legal birth control. If taken within 24-72 hours after rape, unwanted sexual activity or birth control failure, women can dramatically reduce their odds of facing an abortion or unwanted pregnancy. NOW demands that the FDA promote and protect our health and safety, not the political whims of the White House, the pharmaceutical industry, or anti-women politicians.

Take Action:

• Call the FDA, general comment line: 1-888-463-6332
• Call the office of FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford 301-827-2410
• Call the Office of Women’s Health 301-827-0350

Call or Email the New England Regional Office of the FDA

• Joseph Raulinaitis (508) 793-0422, Joseph.Raulinaitis@fda.hhs.gov
• Susan Small (781) 596-7779, Susan.Small@fda.hhs.gov
• Mary B. Yebba (781) 596-7779, Mary.Yebba@fda.hhs.gov

Read more in the following statement from Kim Gandy:

Statement of National Organization for Women President Kim Gandy

The National Organization for Women calls on women’s health advocates to join in a National Day of Action on Tuesday, August 30, protesting the decision by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding emergency contraception (EC).

Today’s announcement by the FDA, on Women’s Equality Day no less, is insulting on so many levels that I hardly know where to begin.

First, FDA commissioner Lester Crawford lied to the United States Senate to achieve his confirmation to this post. Senators Patty Murray and Hillary Clinton had put a hold on his nomination, and released their hold (thus enabling his confirmation) after his absolute assurance that the FDA would finally make a decision on non-prescription availability of emergency contraception by September 1.

Second, despite years of study, despite strong support from the FDA’s professional staff, despite extensive public hearings and commentary, and despite the near-unanimous recommendations of not one but two FDA advisory panels, this newly appointed Commissioner has again delayed women’s access to emergency contraception (EC) — and with the lame excuse that they need more time for “public comment.”

Third, the one thing that was made clear in today’s announcement is that women under 17 will be left out altogether, and this time the excuse is even more ridiculous: that the “target” users will not be able to understand the directions. Since Plan B consists only of two small white pills, and the directions are to take one pill after unprotected intercourse (within 5 days) and to take the second pill 12 hours after the first one, it is apparent that any teenager with 6th grade reading ability could follow these directions. My 12-year-old daughter could follow those directions easily. And even if the directions weren’t followed properly, EC is extremely safe — so there would be no adverse health consequences to justify extreme measures to keep it out of the hands of young women.

So the FDA’s “reason” is merely an excuse to deny young women access to the means to prevent pregnancy, and at a time in their lives when an unwanted pregnancy would wreak havoc on their young lives and limit their future. And if a young woman can’t understand such a simple label, do we honestly think that the alternative should be motherhood?

Finally, the FDA says it is not making EC available without prescription to women 17 and over because they can’t figure out how to prevent access to those under 17. C’mon — as if they haven’t seen drugstores deal with alcohol, cigarettes, and the nicotine patch for years. This is just another in a long line of decisions that make women’s health secondary to right-wing politics. This administration is determined to turn the FDA into an arm of the Republican Party - carrying out the fondest desires of Bush allies who oppose women’s use of contraception.

Over-the-Counter Emergency Contraception

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) promises a decision on over the counter Emergency Contraception by September 1.

After more than two years of foot dragging during negotiations with the makers of the “morning after pill,” the FDA once again is promising to issue a decision about emergency contraception (EC). NOW activists and others who support the health and safety of girls and women, have been demanding that the FDA allow the sale of EC without a prescription. We must remind them one more time that their job is to promote and protect our health and safety, not the political whims of their patrons, be they the pharmaceutical industry or the politicians controlling the White House and Congress.

Read more.

NOW Calls for FDA Probe, Questions Integrity of Panel’s Recommendation on Breast Implants

Today we call on the United States Congress to step in and fully investigate the entire circumstances surrounding the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decision to send an approvable letter regarding dangerous silicone gel breast implants — from the allegations of fraud and deception made under oath by managers of the company that makes these implants, to the role of a senior manager at the FDA who acted more like a representative of the manufacturer than a person carrying out a public trust.

Read more.

CVS Pharmacist in Coventry refuses to fill woman’s prescription for Plan-B. From the projo:

Pharmacist refuses to fill prescription

A Planned Parenthood spokeswoman decries the delay in a customer’s ability to get her “morning-after pill” contraceptive, but CVS and a state official defend a pharmacist’s right to act on moral beliefs.

01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, August 11, 2005

BY BARBARA POLICHETTI
Journal Staff Writer

CVS pharmacists, acting on their religious or moral beliefs, can refuse to fill contraceptive prescriptions as long as they make sure the customer can get the medication when another pharmacist is on duty or at another CVS store, company officials said yesterday.

“Our policy is to fill prescriptions for all customers in a timely manner and to make sure their needs are met and that they are satisfied,” Eileen Howard Dunn, vice president of corporate communications and community relations for CVS, said yesterday. “As an employer, however, we must also accommodate a sincerely held religious conviction that may prevent a pharmacist from dispensing a certain prescription.”

Dunn’s remarks came in response to media reports of a woman who was temporarily denied the “morning-after” contraceptive pill at the CVS pharmacy on Tiogue Avenue in Coventry last Friday.

Dunn, who declined to identify either the patron or the pharmacist, said that the customer pulled up to the store’s drive-up window at about 10 p.m. The pharmacist on duty at the 24-hour store refused to fill the prescription because it conflicted with his or her personal beliefs, Dunn said.

Instead, Dunn said, the customer was given the option of either returning to the store the next morning or having CVS send the prescription to another 24-hour store, in Warwick, where it could be filled immediately.

She said that the customer opted to return to the Coventry store on Saturday and picked up her prescription at about 8 a.m.

Dunn said that situation was handled in compliance with corporate policy and that the customer did not complain to the store or to company headquarters.

The incident has angered leaders of Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island, who called CVS’ actions “criminal.”

“Why are we placing undue obstacles on a woman?” Kathy Kushnir, vice president of external affairs for Planned Parenthood, said. “If a woman presents a legal prescription, it must be filled at that time — period, end of story.

“And even if this is just one case, it’s a major case because we have a woman going from pharmacy to pharmacy trying to fill a valid prescription,” Kushnir said. “That is criminal.”

RECENTLY, the so-called “morning after pill,” sold under the name Plan B, has been the focal point of a national debate over whether pharmacists’ religious or moral concerns take precedence over consumers’ right to fill a prescription.

It is also wrapped up in the debate over abortion, as there is argument over exactly how the pill works. According to the Web site posted by Plan B manufacturer Duramed Pharmaceuticals, the pill contains a hormone found in most birth-control pills and can work in three ways — it may stop the release of an egg from the ovary, it may prevent the uniting of sperm with an egg, and it may also prevent an egg from attaching to the uterus.

Catherine Cordy, executive director of the state Board of Pharmacy, said that there is nothing in Rhode Island law that “clearly spells out when a pharmacist can or cannot” fill a prescription.

Instead, she said, there are standards of practice that give pharmacists the latitude to refuse to dispense a drug based on their “moral, ethical or professional medical judgment.”

“We believe this is appropriate as long as [the prescription] is made reasonably available to the patient through another pharmacist at the same store or the prescription is transferred to another store,” she said.

Similar standards, she said, have been codified by the American Medical Association and the American Pharmacists Association.

Cordy said that although no complaint has been filed regarding last week’s incident at the Coventry CVS, the state board will investigate the matter.

Kushnir said that the delay in filling the woman’s prescription in Coventry last week is particularly egregious because the morning-after pill is time sensitive and must be taken between 72 and 120 hours after unprotected sex.

“The sooner you take it, the more effective it is,” Kushnir said, adding that a pharmacist who refuses to fill the prescription has no way of knowing what the customer’s time constraints are unless they engage in an inappropriate conversation.

“They don’t know when a woman might have unprotected sex or if she had sex against her will,” Kushnir said. “A woman with a valid, legal prescription should not have to have that conversation with her pharmacist . . . and she should not be sitting there in the store doing the math.”

Dunn said that CVS wants its customers to be satisfied, and that pharmacists are strictly prohibited from discussing their personal views with customers.

“We just want to make sure that people know that we are sensitive to this issue and that we are in the business of filling prescriptions for our customers and that is our number-one goal,” she said.

She said that is why the company makes sure a customer gets the medication at another time or location if a pharmacist will not fill a prescription for personal reasons.

Kushnir countered that, “Going from Coventry to Warwick may seem innocuous enough, but given the realities of everyday life, it could be a dangerous burden.”

“My presumption,” she said, “is that if I have a valid prescription, I can walk into any pharmacy and get it filled.”

RI NOW Responds

We believe that any woman should be able to walk into her pharmacy with a valid prescription for emergency contraception (or any contraceptive), and have it filled with no questions asked. Decisions about birth control should be left up to a woman and her doctor and no pharmacist has the right to insert himself or herself into a woman’s private healthcare decisions. Referral to another pharmacist or pharmacy is not a satisfactory remedy because these place an additional burden on the woman seeking the prescription, a burden that is not imposed on any other type of prescription, especially not one that must be taken in a timely manner.

Meaghan Lamarre, Action VP, was interviewed by and appeared on WPRI in response to this issue on August 11. Stay tuned for more response and/or possible action on this issue.

Jim Baron 08/12/2005 Pawtucket Times

PROVIDENCE — Chanting “Save Roe, Vote No,” a handful of abortion rights activists rallied at Kennedy Plaza in protest of President George W. Bush’s nomination of Judge John Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“We are here today because we believe in women’s reproductive rights,” said Meaghan Lamarre, Action Vice President of Rhode Island National Organization for Women (RI NOW). “We are here today because we recognize that those rights are under attack, and we are here today to fight back.”

With the resignation last month of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Lamarre said, speaking through a bullhorn, “we are in a state of emergency when it comes to abortion rights.”

She called on U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Lincoln Chafee, whom she referred to as “Rhode Island’s two pro-choice senators,” to vote against Roberts when he comes to the Senate for confirmation.

“Rather than appoint a moderate Justice in the mold of Sandra Day O’Connor, President Bush chose to appoint a partisan extremist,” Lamarre said, warning that Roberts would “overturn Roe and send us back to the days of dangerous back-alley abortions.” Roe v. Wade is the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

One of the signs held briefly by a protester carried a drawing of a coathanger inside a red circle with a diagonal line through it, similar to a no-smoking sign.

The rally, held during the afternoon rush hour, was sponsored by the RI Chapter of the National Organization for Women and 2 to1: The Coalition to Preserve Choice.

“It’s a scary time for pro-choice people,” said Hilary Markoe, president of 2 to 1. “Roberts is bad news.”

Markoe said that nationally, Rhode Island is considered “high risk” for outlawing abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned, “or so severely restricting it that it would be, in effect, unobtainable.”

Another possibility, she said, is that “within 12 months, it would become a statewide legal battle, which is bad news, considering the Governor is anti-choice, the Senate is anti-choice and the House is anti-choice. If it becomes a legal battle in Rhode Island, pro-choice women are sure to lose.”

If abortion were outlawed in Rhode Island, Markoe said, women in the state would be faced with an array of bad choices:

“They could try to do an abortion themselves, which could lead to death or permanent sterility; they could obtain an illegal abortion, a dangerous and potentially deadly choice; they could keep the unwanted child, which could lead to increased teenaged mothers, child abuse and poverty, or they could travel to get an abortion in a state where abortion wa still legal, which for many women is just unrealistic.”

Jennifer Lawless, a candidate for Congress in the 2nd District, challenging pro-life incumbent James Langevin for the Democratic nomination, declared that, “the right to privacy is under the most ardent attack we have seen in decades.” She asserted that Langevin, the only pro-life legislator in Rhode Island’s Washington DC delegation, “voted against reproductive freedom 26 times.

After the rally, Lawless told The Times that “no one issue” should decide whether someone is qualified for a seat on the court, but that abortion rights should be one of those that is considered.

Lamarre agreed, saying Thursday’s rally was called to highlight abortion rights but that Roberts’ “record is scary in other areas,” including the environment and civil rights.

“His record shows he is in the pocket of conservatives,” Markoe said. “He said he wasn’t a member of the Federalist Society (a conservative lawyer’s group) but he was a member of the steering committee. So right from the get-go, he is a liar.”

©The Pawtucket Times 2005

From Cox.net …

(Providence, RI) - Pro-choice advocates are urging members of the U.S. Senate to vote against any Supreme Court nominee who is likely to help overturn Roe versus Wade. At a Kennedy Plaza rally last evening Meaghan Lamarre and other members of the Rhode Island National Organiation for Women said that includes current Bush nominee John Roberts because he argued against Roe versus Wade in the past. Lamarre says Sandra Day O’Connor represented a key swing vote when the case was last challenged and upheld by a 5 to 4 margin. She says a recently conducted poll shows a majority of Americans want O’Connor’s replacement to be someone who will also uphold Roe versus Wade.

Thursday, August 11, 2005
5:30-6:00pm
Kenneday Plaza, Downtown Providence

Join us as we rally for our reproductive rights, as we talk about the fragility of Roe v. Wade, and share our concerns about Judge Roberts’ nomination to the Supreme Court.

Poster-making party on Wednesday, August 10, 2005. 6:30pm at the offices of 2to1: the Coalition to Preserve Choice, 1192 Westminster Street, Providence.