"Plan B" survey tallies resistance in some pharmacies in state

More than 10 percent of the state's 1,190 pharmacies aren't making "Plan B" emergency contraception available to women, because they either won't stock the controversial medication or have at least one pharmacist who refuses to dispense it, a leading pro-choice group alleges in a report issued today.

The phone survey by NARAL Pro-Choice Washington also has found that it's not just rural pharmacies. Several pharmacies in Seattle and King County also won't provide Plan B, a time-sensitive, post-intercourse contraception that most pharmacies now provide without a prescription for most women.

NARAL has published the full survey online: www.prochoicewashington.org/issues/pharmmap.shtml.

The survey was done because the state and pharmacists are still arguing over how much access to Plan B pharmacies should be required to provide.

Some pharmacists believe that Plan B, essentially a very high dose of the birth-control pill, could cause an abortion because it could possibly prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus. Pro-choice advocates say there's no proof that's ever happened. Instead, the medicine simply prevents fertilization, and has no effect if a woman is already pregnant.

Some pharmacists maintain they have a right to refuse to provide medications that violate personal religious or moral convictions. Last year, the state Board of Pharmacy ruled that pharmacies must dispense all legal medication, but an individual pharmacist may refuse as long as there was another pharmacist available to dispense the drug.

But two pharmacists and a pharmacy owner sued to block the rules, and a federal judge has imposed an injunction, saying the rules appear unconstitutional. For now, pharmacists are allowed to refuse Plan B. A trial is set for this year.

To conduct the survey, NARAL asked volunteers to call pharmacies in Washington and ask whether they could get Plan B there. The callers identified themselves as being from the "Emergency Contraceptive Access Project." The pharmacies were grouped into one of three categories: those that didn't stock the medicine, those that did but had at least one pharmacist who wouldn't dispense it, and everyone else.

The surveyors were able to reach only about 80 percent of the state's pharmacies, said Karen Cooper, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice. Some wouldn't answer questions and others refused to return calls.

At NARAL's press conference Wednesday morning, a Seattle woman, Trina Stout, 23, recounted being turned away at Park's Pharmacy on Northeast Ravenna Boulevard by Seattle's Green Lake. She wasn't a volunteer. She actually needed Plan B.

"The pharmacist was unsympathetic, rude and dismissive of my health-care needs," Stout said. She said the pharmacist told her that it was impossible to stock every pill, just as it was impossible for an auto-parts store to stock every part.

"I found his analogy callous and offensive," Stout said. "The experience left me shaken upset and worried for other women who are being refused health care."

A man who answered the phone at Park's Wednesday morning said the pharmacy sometimes carries the contraceptive but he declined to comment further and hung up.

Carol M. Ostrom: 206-464-2249 or costrom@seattletimes.com