Dear CVS: A Real ‘Health-Care Company’ Guarantees in-Store Access to Birth Control
Astonishingly, this scenario does not violate a corporate-level policy governing more than 7,600 CVS/pharmacy stores in the United States. Despite recent changes from the Food and Drug Administration, certain types of emergency contraception, including but not limited to brands sold as ella and Next Choice, still require a prescription or are behind the pharmacy counter and require proof of age. When the personal beliefs of all available pharmacists on duty conflict with someone’s need for emergency contraception, CVS specifies that the person seeking emergency contraception should go to another store.
Another type of emergency contraception, Plan B One-Step, is supposed to be sold on the shelf for anyone to pick up and bring to the cash register, but the refusal policy at CVS also extends to sales associates who may refuse to sell emergency contraception that would otherwise be available without a prescription, or who may not be effectively trained to know that it can be purchased by young teens. Mike DeAngelis, a CVS spokesperson, told RH Reality Check in an email that the vast majority of its emergency contraception sales are non-prescription and do not require a pharmacist.
This matters. CVS is an influential player in the industry, and arguably the largest: It receives the most prescription revenue of any pharmacy in the United States. That there is no guarantee of in-store access to contraception is an especially curious thing to consider when the chain is making headlines for its plan to stop selling tobacco products in order to hone a focus on providing for health-care needs. But whose health-care needs?
Please click out to read the update with input from CVS: Dear CVS: A Real ‘Health-Care Company’ Guarantees in-Store Access to Birth Control