“Plan B” Pill Goes Nationwide at Wal-Mart
            Wal-Mart has reversed its earlier position concerning emergency prescription pills and announced it will begin carrying the pills commencing March 20. 
            The Massachusetts State Pharmacy Board ordered the world’s largest retailer to stock the pill last month following a lawsuit by three Boston women claiming that it violated state consumer laws,
            Ron Chomiuk, vice president of the pharmacy says: “Because of this, and the fact that this is an FDA-approved product, we feel it is difficult to justify being the country’s only major pharmacy chain not selling it.”  Although they have been required to sell the Plan B contraceptives they will continue their “conscientious objection” policy which allows employees of Wal-Mart and SAM’S Club who are not comfortable dispensing the drug, to refer the customer to another pharmacist or pharmacy.       
            Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts President Dianne Luby commented, “We commend Wal-Mart for taking an important first step by agreeing to stock emergency contraception in all of their pharmacies across America. We urge them to take the next step, and require every Wal-Mart pharmacist to fill all valid prescriptions without discrimination or delay.”
            In many states, however, their policy will still allow pharmacists to refuse to fill valid emergency contraception prescriptions. 
            Currently Illinois remains the only other state to require the store to sell the contraceptive pill.  

            Time Magazine Favors Abortion
            Time magazine wrote this about the controversy:
            "After months of pressure from both sides of the abortion debate, Wal-Mart decided to stock the controversial emergency contraceptive Plan B, also known as the morning-after pill, in all its more than 3,700 pharmacies nationwide beginning March 20.
            "The company has never publicly objected to the drug and says it chose not to carry Plan B because of low demand. But after being forced by Massachusetts and Illinois to stock the pills in those states, Wal-Mart concluded that wasn't a battle worth waging anywhere else.
            "'Rather than try to fight these [bouts] state by state, it just seemed like the right time to begin to sell emergency contraceptives,' says Mona Williams, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman. The decision is the latest in a string of developments expanding access to emergency contraception, one of the few arenas in which abortion-rights groups seem to be gaining ground."
            Many readers of Time realize that the lawyers at Wal-Mart know they will never win an appeal to a Massachusetts court because the final decision-maker would always be the Chief Justice of our Supreme Judicial Court, Margaret Marshall.