Some Holiday Cheer: Good News on Plan B!
Nancy Keenan is president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.
Happy Holidays!
One year ago, Carrie Baker – a mother of two from Rome, GA – was unable to obtain the emergency contraceptive Plan B® at her local Kroger pharmacy. Carrie shared her story with you, and you helped turn up the public pressure on Kroger Co. by asking the company to adopt a corporate-wide policy to ensure that people age 18 or older can purchase Plan B ® on site, without delay or judgment.
I wanted to thank the more than 21,000 pro-choice Americans who took action so I have an exciting update to share with you!
We spoke with officials at Kroger Co. and – because of the hard work of NARAL Pro-Choice America activists – Kroger Co. has assured us that its policy requires all of its pharmacies to stock Plan B® and have an on-site employee to dispense it to any customer who asks. In addition, Kroger Co. officials provided a contact and phone number for customers who experience any difficulty accessing Plan B® at their pharmacies.
This isn’t just lip service: A recent NARAL Pro-Choice America survey found that only 4.6 percent of Kroger Co. pharmacies are not stocking Plan B®. That’s down from 21 percent since we first asked you to take action in the spring!
If you go to a Kroger Co. pharmacy and experience a situation like Carrie Baker’s, please call customer service specialist Pat Collins at 1-800-KROGERS (1-800-576-4377). Kroger Co. has promised to give these calls special attention.
Remember, it’s up to us to make sure that women who need Plan B® can get it! To find out more about our Plan B®: Where’s Yours? campaign, visit our website.
Thank you for all you do to help protect women’s health.
Search the Blog
I'm very proud that we can practice responsible sex lives while fighting for justice and freedom at the same time. Here's to contraception!
I have great difficulty accepting that the use of Plan B is responsible (as H states). It seems to me from what I've read (and the physicians I've consulted) that the drug can destroy a human life at its beginning or very soon thereafter. As a woman I would have great difficulty allowing myself to take that risk. I also am concerned about the pill's affect on my health. It contains a high concentration of substances which have already proven dangerous to health. I think the more responsible approach would be to avoid sex until I am ready to have and raise children that might result from sexual activity. I can still fight for justice and freedom.
Joie should not be allowed to have and raise as many children as might result from her unprotected sexual activity, regardless of whether she feels she can raise them. Unless she lives completely out of contact with the rest of the world, every additional human life puts more strain on infrastructure and resources. In this day and age, having more children than will replace oneself and one's partner is irresponsible. Therefore, according to her logic, she should only have sex twice in her life, since every instance of unprotected sex could technically result in a child. If she wishes to have sex more often, which many see as a healthy and enjoyable way to express love, it is responsible to use contraception. I agree that the most healthy and responsible forms of contraception are those which prevent conception entirely, such as barrier methods. But should those fail or not be used, it is still more responsible to terminate a life that is as yet only a few cells, than to allow that life to, at worst, be born into a life of neglect, mistreatment, or hardship, or at best be an unintentional burden and competition with lives that were planned for and wanted. It is not practical or helpful to be so absolute about things as Joie wishes to be. In real life, decisions and alternatives are many shades of gray.
Joie should not be allowed to have and raise as many children as might result from her unprotected sexual activity, regardless of whether she feels she can raise them. Unless she lives completely out of contact with the rest of the world, every additional human life puts more strain on infrastructure and resources. In this day and age, having more children than will replace oneself and one's partner is irresponsible. Therefore, according to her logic, she should only have sex twice in her life, since every instance of unprotected sex could technically result in a child. If she wishes to have sex more often, which many see as a healthy and enjoyable way to express love, it is responsible to use contraception. I agree that the most healthy and responsible forms of contraception are those which prevent conception entirely, such as barrier methods. But should those fail or not be used, it is still more responsible to terminate a life that is as yet only a few cells, than to allow that life to, at worst, be born into a life of neglect, mistreatment, or hardship, or at best be an unintentional burden and competition with lives that were planned for and wanted. It is not practical or helpful to be so absolute about things as Joie wishes to be. In real life, decisions and alternatives are many shades of gray.
You will be the first ones to complain when there isn't enough money in the Social Security account to pay for your retirement. As the mother of SEVEN TAX PAYING CITIZENS, I have certainly done my job unselfishly to pay for your old age. Remember that when you are alone in the nursing home and no one comes to visit you. It will be my children's taxes that pay for you to be there.
tmp:
I wonder if your mother thought you were a "burden". Perhaps that's why you don't understand how wonderful it is to have a child - no matter the circumstances. There are no greys - only black and white. Children are blessings from God and if you don't want to be blessed, then don't have sex. Period. If something unfortunate happens, then put that baby up for adoption. There are plenty of people that would give anything to have a child.
Why is there such an epidemic of cancer in women? Could it be that the drug companies have sold you a bill of goods? Is it that those hormones that you so willingly ingest to kill those children will someday kill you?
Think about these things and use your common sense if you have any..........
You will be the first ones to complain when there isn't enough money in the Social Security account to pay for your retirement. As the mother of SEVEN TAX PAYING CITIZENS, I have certainly done my job unselfishly to pay for your old age. Remember that when you are alone in the nursing home and no one comes to visit you. It will be my children's taxes that pay for you to be there.
tmp:
I wonder if your mother thought you were a "burden". Perhaps that's why you don't understand how wonderful it is to have a child - no matter the circumstances. There are no greys - only black and white. Children are blessings from God and if you don't want to be blessed, then don't have sex. Period. If something unfortunate happens, then put that baby up for adoption. There are plenty of people that would give anything to have a child.
Why is there such an epidemic of cancer in women? Could it be that the drug companies have sold you a bill of goods? Is it that those hormones that you so willingly ingest to kill those children will someday kill you?
Think about these things and use your common sense if you have any..........
Bridget should climb down off her holier-than-thou pedestal and quit cranking out litters of puppies! Get off your BACK woman!!!! Your unchecked procreation is doing NOTHING for MY retirement! I WORK, I SAVE MONEY FOR MY FUTURE, I don't depend on society to support me now or EVER! When I am old and in a nursing home I have top flight long-term care coverage to pay for it and plenty of savings, investments and assets to meet whatever needs I may have. I have children who will be grateful that their mother thought enough of their future well being to not expect them to support her, so my kids will be GLAD to visit me because I will not be a burden to them as they raise their own families. No smart person under the age of 40 expects there to be any social security left by the time they retire. Social security is as foreign a concept to me as welfare, which you are probably on, because unless you are Mrs. Bill Gates, I doubt you're raising that many kids without the aid of MY TAX DOLLARS! Just how many dads are involved in that scenario anyway honey? I don't believe there is a single man (after the year 1800 anyway) who would hang around that maternity ward you call a womb. Why don't you cross your legs instead of your fingers and go back to Utah! Young women embrace and defend your reproductive freedom, your mothers and grandmothers & great-grandmothers fought fiercely so you would have the rights you have now! Don't hand your rights over to male bureaucrats who would love to keep you in the kitchen, where they think you belong, just because you didn't personally march & protest for them. Pro-choice does not mean pro-abortion, it is pro-education, it is preventing pregnancy though responsible choices until you are ready to be a parent. Your body your choice, MY body MY choice!!!
I don't know where to begin. First of all as foreign as this may sound, I've been married for 34 years to one man. We have seven children and you paid not a penny for any of them. You don't have to be "Bill Gates" to afford children. God does provide all of our necessities.
Secondly, have you taken a look at the economy lately? You can certainly lose all of those investments overnight. Remember the Great Depression - oh that's right you're too young and dumbed down to remember that.
I've been in plenty of "top flight" nursing homes and I can guarantee you that you will not be happy there. Hopefully, you won't make it that long because your continued use of contraceptives will no doubt cause you many health problems long before you reach retirement age. All of those investments that you are so proud of may have to pay your medical bills - the ones that your insurance doesn't cover.
I notice you didn't even address the health issues with contraception. Don't stick your head in the sand - the real freedom comes from knowing the TRUTH and your take on truth is not it!
Personally, no one is "keeping me in the kitchen" - I like it there. If you are so "pro-choice" why are you so repulsed by MY CHOICE?
bridget - I'm not repulsed by your choice, and nothing is gained by people flinging insults at each other.
If you fight to take away MY choice, however, I WILL be repulsed. Hopefully, it's just a difference of opinion, as one person cannot stop another judging them. I'm fine if you judge me if I have to use Plan B. I'm NOT fine with people trying to stop me from making that choice, and that's what this blog is all about.
On the original blog post, hooray! Plan B needs to be available for ALL women who might need it. Keep on fighting!
tmp, do you really believe that taking a life already begun is 'healthier' than abstaining from sex? Do you really believe sex is so essential to human health that we must allow 1.3 million unborn children each year to be sacrificed on its altar. That is the absurd logic of the pro abortion, pro contraception mentality. Sex is no more necessary for physical or mental health than is (say) alcohol! Nor is sex necessary to express love. Any love making that brings about such destruction of innocent incipient life cannot be "a healthy and enjoyable way to express love". It is ultimately both personally and socially (yes, socially) destructive. And "having more children than will replace oneself and one's partner" as you put it, is NOT irresponsible. It is now essential in western society. - a realization slowly dawning on severely under-populated Europe. Many governments there have recently started offering financial and other incentives to couples to have more children. Regarding "her unprotected sexual activity" I have never engaged in it (as your post rather presumptuously assumes). One of the great fallacies of our day is that we must allow our hormones to dictate our actions. I have confined sexual activity to those times when I am in a position to accept and care for any resulting offspring (to put it crudely). That, I believe, is everyone's responsibility, and it is THE REAL birth control.
That's nice, Joie. Other people feel differently, and we want everyone to have that freedom of choice.
Sex is absolutely necessary for my husband and I to fully express our love to each other, and it is for MOST couples. We do not want children, now, or ever. So birth control it is! I'm SO grateful I have it!
Keep fighting, NARAL!