Word: marte
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Mart, usually a 10-ton target for activists ranging from union organizers to antiglobalization protesters, found itself wearing a new label from some liberals last week: ally. After months of pressure from both sides of the abortion debate, Wal-Mart decided to stock the controversial emergency contraceptive Plan B, also known as the morning-after pill, in all its more than 3,700 pharmacies nationwide beginning March 20. The company has never publicly objected to the drug and says it chose not to carry Plan B because of low demand. But after being forced by Massachusetts and Illinois to stock...
...rural areas this means that a lot of women who would have had to drive for miles and miles to find Plan B will be able to find it at their local Wal-Mart," says Sharon Camp, founder of the company that developed Plan B and now president of the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive-health research group. Because the drug's effectiveness drops 50% every 12 hours and is limited to the first 72 hours after unprotected sex, proponents of Plan B say any obstacle--a doctor who is unavailable to write a prescription or a pharmacy that...
...While Wal-Mart has never publicly objected to Plan B on principle (it says Plan B simply isn?t in great demand), it has nevertheless faced intense ideological pressure. ?We?ve had women?s groups who felt that we should be selling it; we?ve had conservative Christian organizations that felt Wal-Mart was the last one taking a stand again the drug,? says Mona Williams, a spokeswoman for the company. Wal-Mart has been considering the change for months; at a meeting in January of store managers, several lobbied for adding Plan B to the usual stock, arguing that...
...ordinary birth control pills and works in a similar way, by preventing ovulation and fertilization. It can also work by inhibiting a fertilized egg from implanting itself in the uterus, a process that anti-abortion-rights advocates say is effectively an abortion. In a concession to opponents, Wal-Mart will keep its policy allowing individual pharmacists with moral qualms about Plan B to turn a customer down, as long as they refer her to another pharmacist or nearby pharmacy. (That policy will not apply in Massachusetts or Illinois...
...abortion-rights advocates embraced the company?s decision as a significant step in expanding quick, convenient access. ?We?re thrilled-we think this is a great first step for Wal-Mart,? says Dianne Luby of Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts, which had filed suit against the company to force it to comply with the state law. She says the move is particularly important for women in rural areas, where Wal-Mart is often the only pharmacy in town. Because Plan B is effective only within the first 72 hours after unprotected sex and is most effective in the first 24 hours...