Kassism At Target

Media Girl notes that Target is defending its pharmacists when they refuse to fulfill prescriptions for contraception. Great. (It is nice that Kass informed us that female contraception is particularly evil, which explains a lot; somehow I doubt that any of these pharmacists refuse on principle to work at stores that sell condoms.) And the fact that Target is willing to buckle demonstrates that the beliefs of the President’s handpicked bioethics czar about gender and sexuality are far from fringe ones. As MG says: “There are people who believe women must be punished for having sex, and now, in the 21st century, they have corporate and governmental backing, leaving women to fend for themselves when it comes to healthcare.” And, of course, making contraception harder to obtain will increase the number of abortions, but when conflicts emerge between controlling female sexuality and protecting fetal life, we all know which one gets thrown under the bus.

One thing to add about this: while Target’s defenders will talk about the “principles” of the pharmacists who refuse to fulfill prescriptions that may give women more autonomy than they consider appropriate, this issue as about anything but. People are, of course, free, to oppose contraception, despise non-submissive women, etc., if they so choose. And if their professional obligations conflict with their principles, they have an obvious choice: they can resign and find a job consistent with their principles. These people, conversely, want to be able to get paid despite not being willing to do their jobs. That’s pretty much the opposite of standing on principle. But, of course, if they resigned they wouldn’t be able to use their gatekeeping authority to inflict their anachronistic moral principles on people who don’t share them, which one suspects is the more important “principle” here.

Related: another eminent Straussian at a top American university informs us that gender relations would improve if only the 19th century would return.

…UPDATE: Aspazia reminds us (and tells us how) to contact Target and let them know what you think about this.