Capitol Pill: Charting Birth Control Access in D.C.
Tomorrow, a new Sexist project debuts: “Capitol Pill.” Capitol Pill surveys local pharmacies about their availability of birth control, emergency contraception, and the abortion pill, then charts them on a map of the District. In each installment, I’ll highlight a new pharmacy and rate it based on its friendliness toward providing contraception.
The project was inspired by last week’s grand opening of the the Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy, a Catholic-run outfit in Chantilly, Va. that offers natural family planning primers in place of condoms, birth control, and pornography. With the opening of the new pharmacy, Chantilly joined six other cities recommended by Pharmacists for Life International, including the yokel meccas of Hialeah, Fla., Richmond, Ind., and Superior, Neb. But I’ve found that drug-seekers looking to support a culture of life needn’t travel to Chantilly to be denied their one-a-day pills. Even though godless, liberal Washington, D.C., is a center of pro-choice activity, its local pharmacy offerings don’t always jibe with legislation.
Stay tuned to find if your local pharmacy will dispense moral posturing in place of the patch, neglect to stock emergency contraception in time to stave off conception, or shudder at the sight of your abortion pill prescription.
If you have any suggestions for additional pharmacies to look into, please drop me a line in the comments.
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1:33 am
Another consideration is whether the condoms are kept locked up and you have to find (good luck!) an employee to get any.
9:25 am
You’re right, meara. That’s part of what I call the “intimidation factor” … how hard it is to ask for contraception. I’ll try to mention that in my roundups for pharmacies that I have that info on.
9:32 am
Cool feature.
U St. Rite Aid locks up condoms.
Oh, and everyone shakes their head at my abortion pill prescription, not just the religious.
10:13 am
I like that your Web site is my Web site, Coleman.
12:35 pm
Are you going undercover at each pharmacy? That will be funny.
1:09 pm
Mi casa es su casa, y mis websites tambien.
“Una chica en una bicicleta para mujeres! Ja ja ja!”
2:04 pm
a girl on a bike for women?
2:16 pm
You should check out the CVS on 7th just south of U. Last time I was in there they were selling 3-packs of condoms up front next to the candy bars below the cash register. So convenient!
2:36 pm
Stealthy!
9:54 am
It’s wonderful this topic is FINALLY getting some attention! There is a group of concerned public health students at George Washington University who are trying to tackle this very same issue— check out their progress at: http://savelivesfreethecondoms.blogspot.com/
The students have been gathering data at all CVS stores around the city and even some beyond the borders of the District. To elevate this issue to an even greater concern: past patterns of condom lock-ups have been directly correlated with high HIV pockets throughout the city.
10:19 am
The fact that there are so few selections for pharmacies in the District, mostly CVS, and their practices of restricting condom/contraception access is infuriating! I’m so glad there are people willing to call attention to this horrible practices. Thanks Amanda! Thanks Save Lives! Contraception is a basic right to health, has been since 1968. Protection from disease is also a basic right.
10:20 am
We along with 2 other years of George Washington University as well as other coalition members like the Metropolitan Washington Public Health Association have been to all 51 CVS’s in the District of Columbia, I have personally been to over 15 and to be very blunt CVS chooses to reduce access to condoms in poor, predominantly black neighborhoods where the incidence rate of HIV/AIDS is at a staggeringly higher rate compared to that of the more predominantly “white” neighborhoods in the District. CVS has virtually shut off communication with our coalition. With the HIV/AIDS rate 1 out of 20 in the district we think that it is AMORAL for CVS to reduce access. Please check out our blog that was mentioned above http://savelivesfreethecondoms.blogspot.com
10:46 am
Looks like you guys are doing something really awesome. I’ve only surveyed ONE CVS pharmacy so far but will be sure to head down to other areas of the city to see how their CVS measures up.
11:03 am
Check out the one on Naylor road. We went there the other night and they’ve got a selection of their condoms completely locked up!! I’d be curious to find out what other kinds of reproductive access are being blocked.
12:58 pm
Thank you Amanda! I think what makes all of us, and particularly makes me angry is that CVS tries to claim that their practices are NOT about race. . . IT is about RACE! The CVS’s by the Watergate sells conditioner that is nearly $40 and the manager told me that he loses thousands and thousands of dollars on their high end products that are only sold in predominantly white neighborhoods- is CVS saying that kids at GWU that shop at the Watergate location (which is one of CVS’s that serves the students) are not stealing because most of the student body is white and have “money?” CVS loss prevention says otherwise.
1:08 pm
Thanks for cluing me in to a really interesting aspect to all this. There’s first the outright objection to contraception based on moral or religious issues, and then there’s the economic—and if your research into these pharmacies is correct, racial—element to contraception availability. I’ll definitely keep my eyes open to that as I look at more pharmacies around the city.
2:15 pm
Thanks for highlighting these issues of birth control and condom access in DC. I am with the GWU School of Public Health and Health Services and the Metro Washington Public Health Association (MWPHA). Please join with our students and members fighting to eliminate barriers to save, healthy sex, and other forms of HIV prevention. As Alex mentioned, visit the http://savelivesfreethecondoms.blogspot.com to volunteer to help. (And come out December 1 – World AIDS Day – to demand housing for people living with AIDS).