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Thursday, October 20, 2005

I already won't shop at Wal-Mart. Now I have to scratch Target off the list too
Posted by Jill | 2:43 PM

This is important enough to be worth the inconvenience. Sure, Target has great home stuff, but no fucking pharmacist should be able to impose his morality on customers.

Reprinted in total from Americablog:

Well, Target has given its answer to customers who are concerned that Target pharmacists are refusing to fill prescriptions simply because they think you're a sinner. Target's answer? Go Cheney yourself.

An AMERICAblog reader just sent me this email they received from Target. I've spoken with Planned Parenthood and the email is legit. Target's response to PPFA and to its customers is that they stand by their pharmacists - if the pharmacist thinks you're a sinner they don't have to fill your prescription and can send you elsewhere.


From: Target.Response Target.Response@target.com
Date: Oct 20, 2005 7:18 AM
Subject: Filling Prescriptions at Target

Dear Target Guest,

Target places a high priority on our role as a community pharmacy and our obligation to meet the needs of the patients we serve. We expect all our team members, including our pharmacists, to provide respectful service to our guests, particularly when it comes to their health care needs.

Like many other retailers, Target has a policy that ensures a guest's prescription for emergency contraception is filled, whether at Target or at a different pharmacy, in a timely and respectful manner. This policy meets the health care needs of our guests while respecting the diversity of our team members.

Your thoughts help us learn more about what our guests expect, so I'll be sure to share your feedback with our pharmacy executives.

Thanks for taking the time to share your questions, thoughts and comments. I hope we'll see you again soon at Target.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Hanson
Target Executive Offices


Planned Parenthood has had other communications with Target. Target's policy is that the customer can go to hell if their pharmacist thinks you're a sinner. Target will let their pharmacist turn you away so that YOU have to go find another pharmacy, rather than their pharmacist getting another frigging job.

You have to love Target. They're willing to hire people who don't wan to do the very job they're applying for. And their own employee's bigotry and bias matters more to them than the emergency health needs of their own customers.

So let's ask Target if they also support the following Target employees:

  • Check out clerks who verify how fat you are before selling you that package of potato chips?
  • Pharmacists who don't want to fill prescriptions for Jewish customers who killed Christ.
  • Pharmacists who don't want to help customers who worship a "Satanic counterfeit" (read: "The Pope," in fundie-speak).
  • Pharmacists who only dispense HIV medicine to "innocent victims" of AIDS.
  • Pharmacists who want proof that women seeking emergency contraception were really raped, and that they didn't "deserve it."
  • Pharmacists (or cashiers) who are Christian Scientists - can they refuse to sell any medicine, even aspirin, to anyone?
  • Pharmacists who won't sell birth control pills to unmarried women, condoms to unmarried men, or any birth control at all because God doesn't want people spilling their seed.
  • Can fundamentalist Christian employees refuse to interact with gay people in any way, shape or form since gays are sinners, abominations, biological errors, and very likely pedophiles?


Target's contact info:
Call Target's press office (hey, we're new media, and this will get their attention FAR more than calling their stupid customer services number).

Message:
Why is Target supporting radical right bigotry against its own customers? How dare they tell us they won't fill our prescriptions because their pharmacists thinks we're sinner? Would they turn away Jews if their pharmacist were a conservative Catholic or Baptist? Would they turn away gays if their pharmacist thinks they're abominations? Would they turn away people with AIDS because, you know, they're hardly "innocent"? Demand answers.

Susan Kahn, 1-612-761-6735
Cathy Wright, 1-612-761-6627 or 1-847-615-1538
Paula Thornton-Greear, 612-696-3400
Carolyn Brookter, 1-612-696-6557


If you think John's being overly dramatic, guess again. The State of Wyoming Board of Pharmacy has already made a proposal to allow pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions to which they have a moral objection. This would open the door to allowing a pharmacist to refuse to provide HIV drugs to drug abusers, or for that matter, penicillin to welfare mothers.

If you don't like aspects of your job, don't take it. The job of a pharmacist is to fill prescriptions. If there's a legitimate medical reason to not fill it, such as adverse cross-reactions with another drug the customer is taking, then you call the doctor and get more information. But if you can't fill a prescription for contraceptives because of a moral or religious objection, then you have no business being a pharmacist.

It's easy for me to not shop at Wal-Mart. They're not in my area, and there are alternatives. Target is a bit tougher to avoid, but you'll never see me in a Target store again as long as this policy is in place.
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