By the Time You Get To Arizona, Wingnuts Can Deny Contraception To Rape Victims

And, of course, it goes beyond Target–Dr.B notes that in Arizona, pharmacists can continue to get paid while denying morning-after contraception to rape victims. And I think this part of the story she quotes is worth highlighting:

Although it is safe, effective and legal, emergency contraception – the “morning after” pill – can be hard to find in Tucson.

After a sexual assault one recent weekend, a young Tucson woman spent three frantic days trying to obtain the drug to prevent a pregnancy, knowing that each passing day lowered the chance the drug would work.

While calling dozens of Tucson pharmacies trying to fill a prescription for emergency contraception, she found that most did not stock the drug.

Apologists for pharmacists who think they should get paid for not doing their job just like to assume that Plan B will be easy to come by, and if the closest pharmacist happens to be a Leon-Kassesque misogynist you can just go somewhere else close; this is not necessarily true. And, of course, all of this is the result of the Bush Administration using a politicized FDA to prevent a perfectly safe drug from being made available over-the-counter against the advice of most of its experts. (And, of course, this policy will increase the number of abortions, but who cares about protecting fetal life if it interferes with regulating female sexuality?) This power simply needs to be taken away from pharmacists so they can’t keep abusing it.