About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

70 Alb. L. Rev. 55 (2006-2007)
RX for Drugstore Discrimination: Challenging Pharmacy Refusals to Dispense Prescription Contraceptives under State Public Accommodations Laws

handle is hein.journals/albany70 and id is 67 raw text is: RX FOR DRUGSTORE DISCRIMINATION: CHALLENGING PHARMACY REFUSALS TO DISPENSE PRESCRIPTION CONTRACEPTIVES UNDER STATE PUBLIC ACCOMMODATIONS LAWS Charu A. Chandrasekhar* I. INTRODUCTION In January 2005, a Wisconsin mother of six children who experienced condom failure after intercourse obtained a prescription for emergency contraception1 and traveled to a Milwaukee Walgreens to fill the prescription.2 Instead of honoring the physician's medical instructions, however, pharmacist Michelle Long refused to fill the prescription and publicly berated the customer, telling her, 'You're a murderer. I will not help you kill this baby. I will not have the blood on my hands.3 Although the * Staff Attorney Fellow, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, New York, N.Y.; J.D., Harvard Law School, 2004; B.A., Yale College, 1998. I thank the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project for providing institutional and professional support for this Article. I am indebted to my colleague Sondra Goldschein, whose extensive research on state public accommodations law and tireless advocacy on pharmacy refusals laid the groundwork for this Article. My colleagues Louise Melling and Corinne Schiff provided invaluable editorial guidance and feedback on drafts of this Article and enthusiastically devoted countless hours to discussing the myriad legal implications of pharmacy refusals with me. I also thank Aruna Chandrasekhar for her medical research on hormonal contraception and Lizzie Rosenthal and Abid Imam for their detailed editorial suggestions. I Emergency contraception is a prescription contraceptive taken after unprotected intercourse that is medically identical to birth control pills and has no abortifacient effect. See Comm. on Adolescence, Am. Acad. of Pediatrics, Policy Statement, Emergency Contraception, 116 PEDIATRICS 1038, 1038 (2005); James Trussell et al., The Role of Emergency Contraception, 190 AM. J. OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY S30, S30, S32 (2004). Emergency contraception is popularly known as the morning-after pill. Alison Karasz et al., The Visit Before the Morning After: Barriers to Preprescribing Emergency Contraception, ANNALS FAM. MED., July/Aug. 2004, at 345, 345; Walgreens Disciplines Four of Its Pharmacists, CHAIN DRUG REV. (New York, N.Y.), Dec. 19, 2005, at 3. For a complete discussion of emergency contraception, see infra notes 20-24 and accompanying text. 2 Annysa Johnson, State Probes Drug Refusal: Pharmacist Wouldn't Fill Order for Contraceptive, MILWAUKEE J. SENTINEL, May 11, 2005, at Bi. 3 Planned Parenthood Calls on Walgreens to End Prescription Denials, PLANNED PARENTHOOD NEWS WIRE, May 16, 2005, http://www.ppwi.org/media/PAfMedia/NewsWire/05-

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most