Three women in Massachusetts on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Wal-Mart because the company does not stock or supply Barr Laboratories’ emergency contraceptive Plan B, which can prevent pregnancy if charmed within 72 hours after sensuous intercourse, cbs4boston.com reports. The women — Katrina McCarty of Somerville, and Julie Battel and Rebekah Gee of Boston — were rejected when they tried to get the drug at area Wal-Marts (cbs4boston, 2/1). According to the Boston Sphere, McCarty and Battel bought the antidepressant at another store, but Gee did not procure the medicament elsewhere (Mohl, Boston World, 2/2). The state does not have any specific law requiring pharmacies to fill Contemplate B prescriptions. Lower than drunk the pharmacy board’s regulations, conditions pharmacies must “maintain … a enough variety and supply of medicinal chemicals and preparations which are exigent to parathesis and give up commonly prescribed medications in accordance with the worn out needs of the community.” The women — who are supported by the Planned Parenthood Federated with of Massachusetts, NARAL Pro-Hand-picked Massachusetts and Jane Doe — develop to argue that Wal-Mart is breaching the Massachusetts Consumer Sponsorship Affectation by being unfit to fill prescriptions concerning Envisage B (Mohl, Boston Globe, 2/1). Samuel Perkins, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said that Map out B “is the medication for [EC] and it’s assuredly leading to the needs of the community in Massachusetts” (Sage, Reuters, 2/1).

Wal-Mart’s response
Wal-Mart in a Jan. 26 letter said that the plaintiffs had no case because they were not harmed by having to go to another store to purchase Plan B. According to the Globe, the plaintiffs, when suing under the Consumer Protection Act, must to show that they were harmed, in accordance with a Supreme Judicial Court decision (Boston Globe, 2/2). According to a Wal-Mart spokesperson, Sarah Clark, the company does not stock Plan B “for business reasons,” but she declined to explain what the reasons are. Clark said the company has a policy of referring customers seeking products that it does not carry to other stores that do provide them. She added that Wal-Mart will stock EC in its pharmacies across he state if the company is ordered to do so either by the Massachusetts Pharmacy Board or by state Attorney General Thomas Reilly (D) (Boston Globe, 2/1). Wal-Mart spokesperson Dan Fogleman said the company is considering writing a letter to the state pharmacy board requesting direction on requiring Plan B (Reuters, 2/1).

NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” on Tuesday included a discussion of legislation under consideration by several states to protect health workers who refuse to provide services that conflict with their beliefs, such as dispensing EC. Guests on the program included Robyn Shapiro, director of the Center for the Study of Bioethics at the Medical College of Wisconsin; Rob Stein, reporter for the Washington Post; and David Stevens, physician, bioethicist and executive director of the Christian Medical Association (Conan, “Talk of the Nation,” NPR, 1/31). The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.

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