Representatives of on Wednesday in a letter to Cincinnati-based grocery store chain called on executives to stock the emergency contraception Plan B, which can prevent pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse, at all of its pharmacies nationwide, reports (Gross, AP/International Herald Tribune, 3/21). Advocates called on Kroger stores to make ' Plan B available to women at its pharmacies after Rome, Ga., resident Carrie Baker said a pharmacist at a Kroger store in December 2006 refused to sell her the drug.
in August 2006 approved nonprescription sales of Plan B to women ages 18 and older. Major pharmacy chains -- such as , and -- are carrying Plan B in all their stores and have pledged to ensure that customers can buy it at each store even if a certain employee declines to sell the pill because of moral objections. Glynn Jenkins, a spokesperson for Kroger, said that the company has a similar policy for prescription medications but not for over-the-counter drugs, such as Plan B.
Kroger earlier in the month announced that it is reiterating to its pharmacists that the company's drug policy requires its pharmacies to "make accommodations" to have a prescription filled if a pharmacist refuses to fill it ( , 3/13). Ted Miller, communications director for NARAL Pro-Choice America, said members of the group called 231 Kroger-run pharmacies across the country and found that 21% of the stores did not make the drug immediately available to women. A Kroger spokesperson said the chain does carry the drug at all of its locations, adding that some employees might not have understood the company's policies.
She said that the company sent messages to all of its pharmacies clarifying company policy and that many of the calls NARAL members made to stores came before the policy was clarified. "We think some of this is due to some confusion over the policy," Kroger spokesperson Lynn Marmer said. She said that pharmacists who refuse to sell the pill could ask another employee to sell Plan B and that a customer should never be sent to another store to purchase it (AP/International Herald Tribune, 3/21).
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