By Gudrun Schultz
STEINBACH, Manitoba, January 30, 2006 (LifeSiteNew.com) –Over half the pharmacies in the town of Steinbach refuse to stock the abortifacient pill known as “Plan B,” which will prevent pregnancy, or end a pregnancy in the first few days following conception.
“You’re not going to find that around here because of the kind of community this is,” staff in a small, privately owned pharmacy told the Winnipeg Free Press last week. Steinbach is a predominantly Christian community with strong roots in the Mennonite tradition.
Health Canada made Plan B available without a prescription in April 2005. It is kept behind store counters and dispensed by pharmacists. Pharmacists have the right to refuse to dispense the drug as a “matter of conscience,” but they must refer customers to another pharmacist who does carry it.
The Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada is now arguing that Plan B should be kept on store shelves where customers can help themselves, in order to bypass pharmacists who refuse to dispense the drug.
The number of Manitoban women taking the drug has more than doubled since it became more easily available. Since April, 1,842 doses of Plan B have been bought in Manitoba. There are likely more, the Free Press reported Sunday, since pharmacists no longer need to report purchases to Manitoba Health.
See related LifeSiteNews coverage:
Pharmacists Rightly Concerned about Women’s Health and Plan B
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/dec/05120208.html