Statement on Walmart Lawsuit
Synopsis: Statement of Melissa Kogut, Executive Director, regarding lawsuit filed in Suffolk County today against Walmart for refusing to stock Emergency Contraception.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 1, 2006
STATEMENT OF MELISSA KOGUT
AT PRESS CONFERENCE ANNOUNCING LAWSUIT TARGETING
WAL-MART FOR NOT STOCKING EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION
I stand here today with women’s health advocates and concerned citizens to say that Wal-Mart, with its corporate policies not to stock Emergency Contraception, has turned its back on women’s health.
I’m proud that in Massachusetts we have recently celebrated enactment of the new Emergency Contraception Law which ensures that women will have access to Emergency Contraception when it’s most effective at preventing pregnancy – whether at a hospital emergency room for rape survivors or at a participating pharmacy where a woman can now walk in without a prescription. I am encouraged by the interest pharmacists have expressed around the state to participate in this voluntary new provision in our law.
But, a woman going to Wal-Mart to fill a prescription is still being turned away.
We say, not any more. Not in Massachusetts.
Emergency Contraception has tremendous potential to reduce unintended pregnancy only if women have access to this contraception method soon after unprotected sex, contraceptive failure or rape. Wal-Mart has a responsibility to meet this basic health need and it’s time it changed its policies to be in line with state regulations.
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