CHANTILLY, Va. (AP) — A new drug store at a Virginia strip mall is putting its faith in an unconventional business plan: No candy. No sodas. And no birth control. Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy is among at least seven pharmacies across the nation that are refusing as a matter of faith to sell contraceptives of any kind, even if a person has a prescription.
States across the country have been wrestling with the issue of pharmacists who refuse on religious grounds to dispense birth control or morning-after pills, and some have enacted laws requiring drug stores to fill the prescriptions.
In Virginia, though, pharmacists can turn away any prescription for any reason.
"I am grateful to be able to practice," pharmacy manager Robert Semler said, "where my conscience will never be violated and my faith does not have to be checked at the door each morning."
On Tuesday, the pharmacy celebrated a blessing from Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde. While Divine Mercy Care is not affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, it is guided by church teachings on sexuality, which forbid any form of artificial contraception, including morning-after pills, condoms and birth control pills, a common prescription used by millions of women in the U.S.
"This pharmacy is a vibrant example of our Holy Father’s charge to all of us to wear our faith in the public square," said Loverde, who sprinkled holy water on the shelves stocked with painkillers and acne treatments. "It will allow families to shop in an environment where their faith is not compromised."
…The Virginia store’s policy has drawn scorn from some abortion rights groups, who have already called for a boycott and collected more than 1,000 signatures protesting the pharmacy.
Once more so much for choice. You will dispense birth control even if it is against your conscience. We demand it! How dare you follow your conscience!
"If this emboldens other pharmacies in other parts of the state, it could really affect low-income and rural women in terms of access," said Tarina Keene, executive director of the Virginia chapter of the National Abortion Rights Action League.
How scandalous that other pharmacists might be "emboldened" to follow their conscience. This must be stopped!
Whether Catholics will be drawn to the pharmacy is uncertain. According to a Gallup poll published last year for an extensive study of U.S. Catholicism called American Catholics Today, 75 percent of U.S. Catholics said you can still be a good Catholic even if you don’t obey church teachings on birth control.
That is mandated boilerplate. Any story about Catholics and contraception has to include some poll about Catholics and birth control. Funny how when an article is about Catholics and abortion they don’t mention that the same poll said the "Church’s teaching on abortion is ‘very important,’"
Catherine Muskett said she plans to shop at the drug store even though she lives more than 20 miles away.
"Obviously it’s good to support pro-life causes. Every little bit counts," said Muskett, one of about 75 people who crowded into the tiny shop for Tuesday’s ceremony.
[article]
Amen to that, I would go out of my way to support a drug store that did this.
29 comments
That’s nice and all but some women take birth control pills for medical reasons besides contraception.
The real question is will they sell Viagra?
That is an interesting question, snup.
It is my understanding that an impotent person would not be able to marry in the Church because it is unable to complete the marital act. Viagra would enable that person to do so and participate in the unitive and procreative act. My guess is that not only they would but that they should (but I am no canon lawyer)
It is actually quite nice to see a business run not by dollar signs, but by religious principles. If you don’t like it, there are plenty of other pharmacies that will provide exactly what it is that you want. In actuality, the number of women “requiring” oral contraceptives for polycystic ovarian disease (the only real medical condition that “requires” OC’s as “treatment”) are quite small. There are actually other treatments that are just as effective (perhaps even more so), as well as newer, safer, and not carrying the increased risk of breast cancer. In my 27 years of nursing, I have seen breast cancer rates increasing and occuring in younger, and younger patient populations. This has nothing to do with religious principles, and much to do with our interferance with nature. Not only do we alter our natural hormones as a “convenience”, but as parents…..rather than teach our children right from wrong, we arm them with contraceptives and hope for the best. God bless you all at the Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy. You will be in my ndaily prayers!
I would like to know how to contact the pharmacy to voice my support. They received a 1,000 signature protest… how about sending them a 1,000,000 signature support letter? Also… SNUP: there is no medical reason to take contraceptives. A good friend of mine is an OB/GYN and refuses to prescribe birth control for anything because there are many other drugs out there that do whatever it is that you need without the contraceptive. I know I can’t show you proof because I’m not a doctor, but I trust my friend implicitly.
Why would the sale of Viagra be an issue? Has medical treatment for medical issues been considered sinful now? Used as prescribed by a doctor, and not abused, why should Viagra be different than say Valium?
Dear Snup,
I am tired of hearing about whether insurance covers Viagara rather than birth control (Most insurances make the patient pay the full amount of Viagra themselves, considering it “recreational”) and your assertion that the Pharmacy shouldn’t cover one if not the other is no different. The atttitude is that somehow it is sexist to dispense a drug for men if they don’t for women. If the drug was about the same condition, you may have a point, but it is not.
I agree with what Mr. Flapatap said, and would like to add one more thing. A healthy sexual relationship in a marriage is beneficial to both the man and the woman, so it is sexist to see Viagra as only benefitting the man.
Refusing to sell birth control is laudable. Good for him. But why no candy or soda?
Viagra restores functionality to something dysfunctional. That is, it is healing. As another commentor put it: “Usually, medicine is used to help heal something broken. However, with contraception we take a completely healthy and properly working system of the body and mutilate it, insert devices into it, or pump it full of chemicals until it completely malfunctions. In any other context this is called poison.”
I am also highly dubious of the claim there are medical conditions that can only be corrected by birth-control pills.
There is no comparison between Viagra and contraceptives in the first place.
Viagra is a medical treatment to restore functionality, contraceptives are not a medical treatment since they break something to keep it from functionally working.
I remember a few years ago, the media was giggling like a bunch of schoolkids when they found out that the Vatican City pharmacy had started selling Viagra. Um…yeah. There’s married folks that work in the Vatican, and they need drugs too.
As others have pointed out, Viagra and similar drugs are perfectly fine. The Church is not against sex — just against the abuse of sex (i.e., outside of marriage). Within marriage, healthy sexual intimacy is part and parcel of building full intimacy.
I am a pharmacist with a conscience clause. It does limit my work. That is okay.
Do you realize if FOCA (the so called Freedom of Choice Act) would negate all conscience clauses and also all state regulates that restrict abortion in any way? There will be penalties for those who oppose evil.
Keep in mind, Viagara was not created as a fix for sexual problems. That is actually only a side effect. It was made to help blood flow. I wonder if the original use has been abandoned.
Candy and soda? Not good for you. While I am sure the owners are not making a claim sugar is against Church teaching, I think they are simply stating “it’s my store, and I don’t want to contribute to rotten teeth and obesity.” Fine by me. I bet there is a store next door that sells soda.
Lastly, I am wondering if there is way to contact the owners and offer support.
“According to a Gallup poll published last year for an extensive study of U.S. Catholicism called American Catholics Today, 75 percent of U.S. Catholics said you can still be a good Catholic even if you don’t obey church teachings on birth control”.
NOT MUCH LESSER IS THE PERCENTILE OF MORONS WHO BELIEVE THIS utter oxymoron:
The Infanticide Candidate will reduce abortions by promoting abortion! OR THAT YOU CAN BE A PRO-CHOICE CATHOLIC (sic).
Unless we demand from the main responsible, USCCB, to excommunicate the morally bankrupt “personal opposed, but…” formal-direct abortion cooperators lawmakers Biden, Pelosi, Kerry, Kennedy, Dodd, etc., the Catholic blogs & multimedia will deservedly be mocked as:
AUSCHWITZ DEBATE CLUBS
Dear Curt Jester readers,
I am pleased to hear about this development. as someone who is in the pharmacy industry, I have had to face repercussions myself as well for taking a moral stand on what I can or cannot allow as my duties within the pharmacy. as of right now although it is not implicitly stated (and I cannot substantially and therefore legally prove) I am facing a glass ceiling within my department because I am unwilling to concede to participating in the sale of contraceptives. because of this, greater responsibilities and have been passed over to those who will participate and my status within the company has become more expendable. I merely mention this because pharmacies such as these are a boon to us folks in this predicament. I am supportive of this new pharmacy and they remain in prayers, God bless them and I hope they continue to thrive (even if they are the competitor).
For those of you (including me) who wish to express support for the folks running this pharmacy, here’s their website:
http://www.dmcpharm.com/
Bless them but if FOCA passes they’ll be driven out of business.
So 25% of Catholics oppose artificial contraception. There are a heck of a lot of Catholics. The possible change in traffic to that drug store is very large. So much for reporters understanding the import of their “facts.”
Good for this Pharmacy!
The problem with allowing contraception & abortion, while still considering oneself to be a “Good Catholic” is the pressure put on couples who reject the Culture of Death to conform by using birth control & abortion. It’s not enough to choose against the Culture of Death. The Culture of Death demands conformity.
I live about an hour away from the pharmacy, but I go near it ever few months for dr appts. I plan on filling any perscription or buying an drugs I need when I am close enough 🙂
Okay..when is the protest scheduled. I want to know so that I can go there, and buy $40 or $50 worth of stuff while the protest is taking place.
The problem with allowing contraception & abortion, while still considering oneself to be a “Good Catholic” is the pressure put on couples who reject the Culture of Death to conform by using birth control & abortion
This is so true!
“If this emboldens other pharmacies in other parts of the state, it could really affect low-income and rural women in terms of access,” said Tarina Keene, executive director of the Virginia chapter of the National Abortion Rights Action League.
What’s worse than not conforming is being low-income and not conforming!
“75 percent of U.S. Catholics said you can still be a good Catholic even if you don’t obey church teachings on birth control.”
Why is the even relevant? The Catholic Church is not a democracy. To us Catholics, our faith and morals are guided by Scripture, Tradition, and Magisterial Teaching. In short, by Holy Mother Church. And Church teaching on this is clear and consistent. Rejecting God and putting ourselves before him are precisely why suffering and death entered this world, and yet this is precisely what we are being asked to do–trusting the majority of humans over God. I hated this argument even before I became a Catholic.
This news brings to mind my late paternal grandmother, who ran a pharmacy (named after my grandfather) with her pharmacist’s degree. It was one of those old-fashioned, corner-store style businesses that sold nothing but medicine and health supplements. In this day of mega-chain drugstores (yes, we have them here in the Philippines), they’ve morphed into mini-supermarkets. I never saw my grandmother sell contraceptives, ever. Maybe her being a member of the Catholic Women’s League had something to do with this.
Ah, but I used birth control pills for my endometriosis and to treat ovarian cysts when I was a virgin…
The pill has other uses…
But with abortion pills and suicide pills now being prescribed, such pharmacies need to be available so Catholic (and some Muslim) pharmacists can find work…especially if Obama removes the “job protection” clause that Bush put through, that protects people from being pushed into helping or assisting things they feel are unethical
I am surprised that stores don’t have the freedom to NOT sell something. If I wanted Coke and the store favored Pepsi, could I sue? If the store sold every “male” product on the market but no female hygiene products, could I sue? How ridiculous! If there is no similar store nearby, it used to be that some enterprising person would see this as a business opportunity, and go for it, rather than try to dictate what a store needs to sell.
Our public seems, more and more, to reject democracy and free enterprise. Consider, for example, pro-choicers who feel the need to scream obscenities and attack signs of people peacefully, prayerfully praying for the lives of the unborn on a sidewalk. “You have no xing right to be here” is a favorite response, rather than realizing that they TOO have the right to assemble in peaceful protest and/or prayer, and if we lose our right to do so, they will (or should) also.
In any case, the side supporting life, faith, and morals is seen to be the “Taliban” “imposing our beliefs on others”, while, ironically, those who would strip us of our rights as American citizens by dictating what beliefs we may hold congratulate one another on their righteousness. Hmmmm…
Okay..when is the protest scheduled. I want to know so that I can go there, and buy $40 or $50 worth of stuff while the protest is taking place.
I’d like to know as well. I’m 3 1/2 hours away, but might be able to swing it.
“According to a Gallup poll published last year for an extensive study of U.S. Catholicism called American Catholics Today, 75 percent of U.S. Catholics said you can still be a good Catholic even if you don’t obey church teachings on birth control”.
JM, you hit the nail on the head. The Church is not a democracy. And praise God that she isn’t!!! The Magesterium is guided by the Holy Spirit, not popular opinion. Our Protestant brothers and sisters whose churches are governed by votes have gotten nothing but trouble from it (ie. Anglicans, Presbyterians).
Truth isn’t determined by popular opinion, people.
Also, how do those “75%” define what a “good Catholic” is? One who attends Mass each Sunday? Or once a month? Or only for Christmas or weddings? One who goes to Mass to “be alone” like Joe Biden does? One who thinks there’s no difference between Catholics and Protestants?
It’s so beautiful to see this little pharmacy standing up for truth. Truth, such as: drugs are intended to heal what is hurt; to fix what is broken. People ususally don’t wear band-aids unless they have a cut.
My fertility is not a disease. It’s beautiful. It’s a sign of my health. Why would I want to mess with that?! Or increase my breast cancer risk by 40% by putting unneccessary hormones in my body?
Rant over.
You people all make me sick – I am a Catholic and I cannot for the LIFE of me understand how you think you can impose your Zealot view points on a country founded on SEPARATION of CHURCH AND STATE. You want religious? Anti-contraception? Great don’t use it. Don’t buy it. Don’t have abortions.
But to come to your office and say “hey, I serve a community of people who are of various religions or NO religion and I chose to only service them in ways that meet MY moral compass thats ok.” If I went to MY job and said hey im going to do my job according to MY values and not the job I was hired to do, I would be fired.
What about a muslim rape victim who needs Plan B? What about a teenage girl who was prescribed birth control due to other health issues? None of you fools are doctors so don’t give me the BS that ‘you trust a doctor friend implicitly’ when they say that birth control isn’t needed for any reason. That is NOT your call to make. If a doctor prescribes the pill for health reasons, a woman has a right to get that prescription filled.
What gives you the right to dictate YOUR religious values on others who might be athetist? or Jewish? or anything else?
Go to church. Pray in your home. Brainwash your kids to live and die by an irrational intepretation of the Bible or whatever it is you bible beating nutjobs do. Why don’t you be a priest if you LOVE religion that much and feel it mmust fill every day and night you are alive?
Thats your choice living here in the USA. But do NOT think that you have the right to tear up a Plan B prescription for a woman who has THE RIGHT to fill thath prescription.
In addition, you think Viagra is to ‘fix’ a problem?? GIVE ME A BREAK. Do you see the dudes who buy viagra? They are all like 100 years old. And they want to extend their sex lives beyond reason.
I suggest you all read “The Handmaids Tale” by Margaret Atwood. It demonstrates how in the future, women are seen and used as nothing but vessels for baby making.
We are not VESSELS. We are human beings who have rights to live the way we want – and if we want to be on the pill so we can AVOID GETTING PREGNANT and having an abortion, that is our RIGHT as we live as free citizens in America.
Dear Pepper Head,
Your argument in favor of the “separation of Church and state” is well-taken, albeit wrong, but also misplaced.
I’m a law student, not a doctor, so let’s talk about rights and laws instead of medical necessities, as you suggest us to be incompetent to discuss the latter. Nobody here is advocating the legal coercion of any individual or group. I may have overlooked a comment, but I don’t see where anyone has advocated the legal prohibition of the sale or use of contraceptives. If such a law were to exist, your sentiment regarding Church and state would be made in a sensible context, although given a proper understanding of the First Amendment, it would still be incorrect.
What people are advocating for here is simply individual liberty: the freedom of a businessman to offer products and services as he sees fit. A pharmacy is a business; it is not a dispensary of rights nor a government office. As the proprietor of a business in a market economy, its owner should be free to offer for sale only such products as he chooses. If I were to walk into a Pizza Hut and order a bucket of crispy fried chicken, I would almost certainly not receive what I wanted. This is true despite the fact that, generally speaking, I am free to buy friend chicken and use it however I see fit. But Pizza Hut simply does not sell chicken. Maybe Pizza Hut’s owners are morally opposed to selling chicken. Or maybe they have made their business-related choice not to sell chicken as the result of any one of a thousand other possible motivations.
I fail to see how the force of law can coherently be applied, in the name of personal liberty, to compel a business to offer for sale a product that its chooses not to sell. Someone taking such a position must be ready to accept that it would be permissible and logical for the government to coerce Pizza Hut to sell me fried chicken.
As to having a “right” to a particular prescription, the nexus between one party’s rights and another’s obligations are not quite as clear as you would suggest. The right to use contraceptives alleged by Griswold v. Connecticut and its companion decisions attaches to the individual. It simply protects a person from prosecution by the state for using contraceptives. Like all Constitutional provisions and individual rights, it places by its own force no obligation on others to assist you in carrying out the action protected by that right. The alternative would be a situation in which I could walk into a radio station and demand the use of their transmitting equipment because I have a right to free speech.
To quickly run through a few other things in far less detail:
1) Islam prohibits the use of abortifacients in much the same manner as Catholicism; so your “Muslim rape victim” is somewhat odd.
2) The news article concerns the proprietor a business, not his employees making unilateral decisions in derogation of their contractual obligations.
3) Viagra is used to treat a medical condition; the necessity of its use or the intentions of its users in any particular instance may bear on whether, on the whole, it has a beneficial or a deleterious effect on society, but not on the nature of the thing itself.
4) I have yet to see anything “demonstrated” about the future. Logic is funny that way. Margaret Atwood’s book is a dystopian novel—i.e. fiction. And its tale of the industrialization of women’s reproductive functions has a far greater correspondence with your world of commercialized sex and free-flowing contraceptives than with one in which sexuality and child-bearing are viewed with sobriety and dignity.
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