Boycott Eckerd's!

[fudge stripe cookays]

This is truly nauseating. About 40 people protested in front of this Eckerd's yesterday. Hit em where it hurts, DU'ers!

This was forwarded to me by a friend. I believe it's from the Dallas Observer.
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What a Pill
A Denton pharmacy's moralizing leaves Buzz feeling queasy
BY PATRICK WILLIAMS

A while ago, Buzz came across a T-shirt stenciled with the words "Jesus loves you. Everybody else thinks you're an asshole." We didn't buy it, but now we wish we had, because then we could wrap it up and send it off to the fine, morally upstanding pharmacists at the Eckerd drugstore on University Drive in Denton. They've earned it.

Here's how: Last week pharmacists at the store refused to fill a woman's prescription for "morning-after pills," a form of birth control that can be taken up to 72 hours after intercourse to prevent pregnancy. Essentially a high dose of hormones found in regular birth-control pills, one of the drug's potential means of working is to prevent a newly fertilized egg from implanting itself in the womb. Hard-core abortion opponents--who apparently include the Eckerd's pharmacists among their ranks--call that "chemical abortion."

The woman in this case, by the way, had been raped. A doctor at her rape exam wrote the prescription. The pharmacists knew this; they had been told so by a male friend of the woman (Buzz's tipster), who had ferried her to a number of drugstores in Denton looking for one that had the pills in stock. The Eckerd had it, but because of their own moral objections, pharmacists there refused to fill a lawful prescription for an innocent woman in dire need.

The woman's friend, who asked not to be identified, said a woman behind the counter first told him the prescription could be filled in two minutes. Time was pressing, and he had explained the need to her. About 20 minutes later, a pharmacist--not a woman--summoned him to a window. "This medication is designed to end life, and I cannot abide by that. There are three of us here, and we all agree on the issue," the pharmacist said, according to the friend, who at that point began yelling loudly.

Lovely. Score one for the Religious Right and book that fine trio a suite in the bosom of Abraham. Buzz figures that anyone who could ignore basic human decency and professional and medical ethics to further victimize an already traumatized woman in the name of moral certitude must be bound for glory. Or something.

The sooner the better.

We suppose they could have really gotten right with God if they had gone to the car where the woman sat weeping while her friend sought the pill, slapped her and called her Jezebel. What was she thinking, going out and getting herself raped and putting those fine pill peddlers in the awkward position of having to dispense an FDA-approved medicine? Hussy.

Now, if you are a rational person, you may be thinking that Buzz has been taken in by some sort of left wing-inspired urban legend or hoax. Sounds loopy, right? Afraid not. We called the pharmacy in Denton, but the person who answered the phone referred all questions to the company's corporate offices. Joan Gallagher, vice president of corporate communications for Eckerd, confirmed that the company was reviewing the situation, but could not discuss specifics. "Our pharmacists are obligated to comply with our policies and procedures," she said. "We do not support the pharmacists' refusal to fill a prescription based on any religious, political or moral convictions, and any pharmacists who would refuse to comply with that policy would be subject to disciplinary action."

Gay Dodson, executive director of the Texas State Board of Pharmacy in Austin, says pharmacists can refuse to fill prescriptions for medical reasons--for instance, if a patient is given orders for two incompatible drugs. But "there's no conscience clause in Texas law that would allow a pharmacist to refuse under moral grounds," she says.

Yet Dodson also said that this is the first case like this she's heard of. It's likely that if the board were called upon to act, it would simply advise the pharmacist of the law.

As for the woman in question, she finally got her pill from a Walgreens pharmacy across the street, her friend said. That's W-A-L-G-R-E-E-N-S...a fine place to shop for all your pharmaceutical needs in Denton, if you get our drift.

[Soloflecks]

1. Never liked Eckerd's anyway!

Oh, boy, that makes me angry. I've avoided E like the plague, and now I'm even happier about that.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

2. commencing boycott

there's always a walgreens across the street. That post really pissed me off.

[cosmicdot]

3. is Eckerd's still part of the JC Penney family?

JC Penney is one of America's largest department store, drugstore, catalog, and e-commerce retailers, employing 250,000 Associates. JC Penney' subsidiary, Eckerd Corporation, is the fourth-largest drugstore chain, operating approximately 2,686 drugstores throughout the Southeast, Sunbelt, and Northeast regions of the U.S. Eckerd, along with its drugstores, offers online shopping and pharmacy services through its Website, eckerd.com. Eckerd announced in 2003 that it plans to open 1,000 drugstores in the nest four years. Eckerd's new store designs increase space by 40%. Eckerd also offers pharmacy benefit management services through Eckerd Health Services. Eckerd Health Services provides progressive health care management by leveraging its extensive experience and leading edge technology and applying it to pharmacy management.

J. C. PENNEY COMPANY, INC.
6501 Legacy Drive, Plano, Texas
75024-3698


JC-PEN-NEY has such a lovely Board of Directors. Another business with "Texas" corporate connections??? If you've ever travelled in Delaware, JC Penney has an itsy bitsy bank branch in Harrington ... I think they're just down the street from the Discover Card itsy bitsy bank ... for 'incorporation' reasons.

Anne Richards is on the Board. I know she's popular. Learning more of her 'involvements' causes me to take a second look.

The values of corporatists filter down.

This incident should never have happened. Democracy doesn't exist in the corporate bureaucracy.


Thomas J. Engibous, 49

Chairman of the Board since 1998, and President and Chief
Executive Officer and a director since 1996, of Texas
Instruments Incorporated (electronics), with which he has served
in positions of increasing importance since 1976, including as
an Executive Vice President from 1993 to 1996; Director of
Catalyst and Dallas Citizens Council; Trustee of Southern
Methodist University; Member of The Business Council and The
Business Roundtable; Director of the Company since 1999.

Kent B. Foster, 58

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and a director, of Ingram
Micro Inc. (wholesaler distributor of technology) since 2000,
President from March to May 2000; President of GTE Corporation
(telecommunications) from 1995 to 1999; Vice Chairman of the
Board of Directors of GTE Corporation from 1993 to 1995;
President of GTE Telephone Operations Group from 1989 to 1995;
Director of Campbell Soup Company, New York Life Insurance
Company, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and its Board of
Governors Council, and the Dallas Opera Executive Board; Trustee
of the Dallas Museum of Art and the GTE Foundation; Director of
the Company since 1998.

Ann W. Richards, 68

Senior Advisor, Public Strategies Inc. since 2001; Senior
Advisor, law firm of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson &
Hand from 1995 to 2001; Governor of Texas from 1991 to 1995;
State Treasurer, State of Texas, from 1983 to 1991; Chair,
Democratic National Convention, 1992; Director of the Aspen
Institute ( this is just another right-wing think-tank ) and Brandeis University; Director of the Company since 1995.

Leonard H. Roberts, 53

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since 1999, and President
from 1993 to 1999, of RadioShack Corporation (consumer
electronics); Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Shoney's,
Inc. from 1990 to 1993; President and Chief Executive Officer of
Arby's, Inc. from 1985 to 1990; Member of the Executive Board of
The National Retail Federation since 1998, of the Executive
Board of Students in Free Enterprise since 1985 and Chair-elect
of the Board of Governors of United Way of America; Director of
Texas Health Resources; Director of the Company since February
2002.

Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., 66

Managing Partner, investment banking firm of Lazard Freres & Co.
and Of Counsel, law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld,
L.L.P. since 2000; Senior Partner from 1992 to 1999 and Partner
from 1982 to 1992, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, L.L.P.;
President from 1977 to 1981 and Executive Director from 1972 to
1977 of the National Urban League; Director of America Online
Latin America, Inc., American Express Company, Barrick Gold,
Callaway Golf Company, Clear Channel Communications, Inc., Dow
Jones & Company, Inc., Fuji Bank, LBJ Foundation, Revlon, Inc.,
Sara Lee Corporation, and Xerox Corporation; Advisor,
International Advisory Board of DaimlerChrysler and Senior
Advisor, Shinsei Bank, Ltd.; Trustee of Howard University;
Director of the Company since 1973.

Jane C. Pfeiffer, 69

Independent management consultant; Chairman of the Board of
National Broadcasting Company, Inc. from 1978 to 1980 (that's NBC/GE);
Independent management consultant from 1976 to 1978; Vice
President of Communications and Government Relations of
International Business Machines Corporation from 1972 to 1976;
Director of Ashland Inc., International Paper Company, the Mony
Group, and The Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York; Senior
Member of The Conference Board and Trustee of the University of
Notre Dame; Director of the Company since 1977.

R. Gerald Turner, 56

President of Southern Methodist University since 1995;
Chancellor of the University of Mississippi from 1984 to 1995;
Chairman, President's Commission, the National Collegiate
Athletic Association, from 1991 to 1992; Director of California
Federal Preferred Capital Corporation, ChemFirst Inc. and
American AAdvantage Funds; Director of the Company since 1995.

M. Anthony Burns, 59

Chairman since 1985, Chief Executive Officer from 1983 to 2000,
and a director since 1979 of Ryder System, Inc. (a provider of
transportation and logistics services), with which he has served
in positions of increasing importance since 1974, including its
President from 1979 to 1999; Director of J. P. Morgan Chase &
Co., Pfizer, Inc., and The Black & Decker Corporation; Trustee
of the University of Miami; and a Member of The Business
Council; Director of the Company since 1988.

Allen Questrom, 62

Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of the Company
since September 2000; Director of Barney's New York, Inc., AEA
Investors, Inc., and Whitney Museum of Art; Trustee of Boston
University. Formerly, Chairman of the Board, from 1999 to
January 2001, and Chief Executive Officer, from 1999 to 2000, of
Barney's New York, Inc., and Chairman of the Board and Chief
Executive Officer of Federated Department Stores, Inc. from 1990
to 1997. Director of the Company since September 2000.

Charles S. Sanford, Jr., 65

Retired Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of
Bankers Trust New York Corporation and its principal subsidiary,
Bankers Trust Company, from 1987 to 1996, with which he served
in positions of increasing importance since 1961, including its
Deputy Chairman from 1986 to 1987 and President from 1983 to
1986; Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees of the
University of Georgia; Overseer of The Wharton School,
University of Pennsylvania; Director of the Company since 1992.

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/77182/000093066102001106/ddef14a.txt

[sonias]

4. Eckerds is out of here

Here's the link to the Yahoo story
Texas Pharmacist Denies Pill to Rape Victim
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040203/ts_nm/life_abortion_dc_2
Eckerd Corp. said on Tuesday it had disciplined one of its pharmacists after he refused to fill the prescription of a rape victim seeking a morning-after abortion pill.

Here is a link to the protest story
Protesters Gather Outside Texas Pharmacy
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040203/ap_on_re_us/pharmacy_protest_1

Of course it would have to be Texas, wouldn't it? Disciplined in this case should have meant firing. Since they won't admit that, then the boycott should go on.


Sonia

[MountainLaurel]

5. Update: 3 pharmacists fired

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Southwest/02/12/pharmacy.firing.ap/index.html

Eckerd Corp. has fired three pharmacists who declined to fill an emergency contraception prescription for a woman who had been raped, one of the pharmacists said.

Gene Herr said Wednesday he and two co-workers were fired January 29, six days after refusing to fill the prescription. He said his own refusal was based on religious grounds.

Eckerd has declined to comment on their employment status. Joan Gallagher, the vice president of communications for Largo, Florida-based Eckerd would say only that the company has taken appropriate disciplinary action.

Herr, 33, of Denton, said he declined to fill the prescription for the so-called "morning-after pill" because he believes it could have killed the embryo if the woman already had conceived. Though he had declined five or six times in the past to fill such prescriptions, it was the first time he had been handed one for a rape victim, he said.

"I went in the back room and briefly prayed about it," said Herr, who had worked for Eckerd for five years. "I actually called my pastor ... and asked him what he thought about it."

Good on Eckerd's for doing the right thing! :toast:

[northzax]

6. right no need to boycott the company

they did the right thing, a couple of pharmacists decided to make policy, and the company corrected them. there is really no big deal here.

[fudge stripe cookays]

7. Thanks for the update!

I hadn't heard anything since it occurred.

Eckerd's is off my shit list.

[KCDem]

8. I have/had the opposite experience

I tried to get EC, first at my local Walgreens; they didn't carry it. :mad: Went to Eckert and they did, just not OTC. :mad: , but less so. At least they carry it. I won't shop at my local Walgreens anymore.

[fudge stripe cookays]

9. Thanks for the update KC...

I have my own problems with our Walgreens in Rowlett. Everyone who works there is a certified moron.

Every time I try to have a prescription refilled, it always takes them around 3 to 5 hours.

This is when there is next to NO line. I'm going to start going to the damned grocery store for prescriptions or just check out different locations of E's and W's. It seems they all kind of do their own thing.