Since Wal-Mart announced it will not carry Preven,
the emergency contraceptive pill, several local pharmacies, clinics and
doctors have also shut their doors to it – making last minute contraception
a difficult, and controversial, itemto obtain in Mount Pleasant.
Wal-Mart recently announced it won’t fill any prescriptions
for Preven – a pill that prevents pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of
unprotected sex – at its 2,400 plus pharmacies.
The nation’s fifth largest drug distributor, Wal-Mart
employees call the move “a business decision” and declined to say little
more. Pharmacists at the local store, 4208 E. Bluegrass Road, said they
don’t carry Preven because “Wal-Mart said they can’t carry it,” and refused
to comment further or identify themselves.
Jessica Hoser of Public Relations for Wal-Mart did not
return repeated phone calls made to the national office by CM LIFE.
CMU Health Services does offer Preven, said Sarah Campbell,
director of Health Services.
“We do recognize that it’s controversial,” she said.
“I think there’s a misconception about it that’s it’s an abortion pill.
That is not true.”
Campbell said the pill prevents pregnancy from ever
occurring – it doesn’t abort an already established pregnancy.
“I know there are those who don’t feel this is within
their values,” Campbell said. “But there’s a certain percentage of our
population who will request it as a service. It is one more thing we have
to offer a woman.”
Preven is not to be confused with RU486 – the French
abortion pill, as Campbell said the two are completely different, yet
often confused. Preven works before conception or pregnancy begins.
Preven is also confused as just being a “morning after
pill,” when it can be taken up to 72 hours or three days after sex, not
just the morning after.
A Preven kit includes a step-by-step patient information
book with detailed patient information, a pregnancy test to determine
if the woman is pregnant – because if she is the pills will not work,
and the pills will not hurt an existing pregnancy – and four light blue
birth control pills. The pills in the Preven kit contain progestin (0.25mg
levonorgestrel) and estrogen (0.05 mg ethinyl estradiol).
After a woman determines she is not pregnant, two of
the pills are taken and the second two are taken 12 hours later. A 1997
Food and Drug Administration report called the pills “safe and effective”
in preventing pregnancy after sex and said the most common side effects
were nausea and/or vomiting lasting a few hours to a couple of days.
During mid cycle of a woman’s menstruation, Campbell
said the risk of pregnancy is the greatest, as much as three of 10 unprotected
women will become pregnant. Preven reduces the risk to one of 15 women
and decreases the probability of pregnancy to 75 percent.
“We would prefer women would never need it – we don’t
see it as a routine method and we encourage other methods,” Campbell said.
“There are some situations where it’s the only option and necessary.”
According to information obtained from Health Services,
Preven was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in September 1998
and is made in the United States. There are over 2.7 million unintended
pregnancies per year in the U.S. and the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention said more than 11 million women report using contraceptive
measures with high failure rates, such as condoms, withdrawal or periodic
abstinence. These facts led the FDA to request that Gynetics, Inc. make
an emergency contraceptive product available in the U.S.
Many women asking for this pill are not irresponsible,
they simply find themselves in situations they hadn’t intended, Campbell
said.
“There are situations where a condom breaks and the
couple was trying to be responsible but, for whatever reason, the method
fails,” she said.
The office visit for Preven costs $35 and it is necessary
to go over the patients’s health history, Campbell said. The kit itself
costs $23.10 and includes a pregnancy test. Campbell said those requesting
the pill must make an appointment. To make an appointment, call 774-5693.
“I know that sounds like a contradiction, but we get
them (patients) in the same day within the timeframe for the effectiveness
of the medication,” she said.
Downtown Drugs, 121 E. Broadway St., doesn’t have a
great market share for Preven, as the pharmacy serves many nursing homes,
said Jim Horton, pharmacy manager.
“We don’t have it because we haven’t ordered it because
we haven’t had any requests,” he said. He said “Yes, we would carry it.”
Horton called dispensing Preven “a tough issue.”
“It’s a hard choice,” said Horton, who said he considers
himself pro-choice.
“It’s a choice issue and I want to keep politics out
of the pharmacy,” he said.
Under Michigan law, a pharmacist can refuse a patient
any type of medication if they feel harm could be done to the patient,
or if the prescription or doctor who prescribed it is not valid. But since
the statute is so “vague,” Horton said “that’s a very gray area – what
does harm to a patient.”
If he saw a request, Horton said he’d call around and
fill it as long as it was a valid order from a valid doctor.
“It’s the pharmacists judgment – my opinion is my personal
preference. I’m not speaking for the other pharmacists who work here or
anyone else.”
Kroger Pharmacy, 4080 E. Bluegrass Road., does not carry
or dispense Preven. A woman answering the phone at the pharmacy refused
to go on the record with her name, or say why the decision was made.
Meijer, 1015 E. Pickard Road., does dispense Preven.
Cherie Selles, pharmacist, said she personally doesn’t
believe in using the emergency contraceptive, “but I believe it is a woman’s
choice.”
Selles considers the pill a method of abortion, but
said she can see cases where it may be necessary.
“There’s rape where this could be a good idea because
of the emotional problems involved with it,” she said. “Ultimately, the
person taking the medicine is the one who should decide.”
Pat Collum, manager of Mission Pharmacy, 808 S. Mission
Road., said Preven isn’t carried there at this time.
“I haven’t had a prescription for it yet so why waste
the inventory,” he said.
Collum said most of the time, it’s a pharmacists personal
decision whether to dispense something like Preven.
“But I see where Wal-Mart has gone out of a limb and
done away with it altogether,” he said.
Judy Cornell, pharmacy technician at Rite Aid Pharmacy,
317 N. Mission Road., said they don’t get orders for Preven and don’t
have it there.
“I don’t know why,” she said, refusing to comment further.
Mark Ross, pharmacist for the Nimkee Memorial Wellness
Center, said his facility is an “Indian health care facility with a limited
amount of supplies,” so they don’t carry Preven.
Brenda Young, clerk technician at the Central Michigan
District Health Department, said they prescribe Preven, but only for established
patients, “not someone we don’t have a chart on,” she said.
“We are always accepting new patients, though,” she
added.
Young said the contraceptive pill is on a sliding fee
scale, so cost ranges.
Big Kmart, 2125 S. Mission St., does not carry Preven
and employees declined comment.
Central Clinic of CMHS/ Brown Street, 314 S. Brown St.,
said they will not prescribe Preven because they are not a gynecological
clinic. That status, however, is not required to prescribe the drug.
Ready Care, 2124 S. Mission St., said they will not
prescribe Preven because “it’s not their clinical policy.” The woman answering
the phone refused to go on record with her name.
Central Clinic Women’s Health Center, 1629 E. High St.,
will prescribe the morning after pill to established patients who have
been seeing a doctor for awhile, and only to their own patients. The woman
answering the phone refused to give her name.
Urgent Care, 905 E. Pickard Road., will not prescribe
Preven, but the receptionist refused to give her name and said she couldn’t
comment on behalf of the doctors.
Questions about Preven can be directed to the toll free
number at 1(888) Preven2 or on the Web at www.Preven.com.

E-mail the author: Angela S. VandenbergLIFE C