Divine Mercy Care, a pro-life pharmacy that opened in Chantilly in 2008, has shut its doors. Divine Mercy Care claimed to treat "every person who comes in as if they are Christ sitting across from you,” only employed pro-life employees, and refused to sell birth control pills (also: candy). I can't exactly say the DMC had a good run; when I visited the pharmacy shortly after its grand opening in October of 2008, nobody was buyin' then, either. I guess refusing to sell stuff isn't a very effective business strategy after all. [Via NBC]

Last week, a federal judge required that pharmacies offer emergency contraception over-the-counter to 17-year-olds (previously, it was only available to women 18 and up, with identification). Reproductive Health Reality Check reminds us that there's still a whole sector of adult women who may not be able to access the morning-after pill: Servicewomen. Writes Nancy Northup:

But emergency contraception is still difficult to access for many groups of women, including the more than 200,000 women serving in the Armed Services. It's excluded from the list of what military facilities, including the primary stores where families shop, are required to stock. That can be particularly challenging for women and families who are based overseas and rely solely on those facilities to buy over-the-counter drugs.

So, women are often unable to get emergency contraception in the place they need it the most—military facilities where sexual assault rates are high and access to alternative pharmacies is low. Northup calls for a campaign to request that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates "make Plan B available to our servicewomen." You can send the President a message here.

U.S. District Judge Edward Korman had some harsh words for the Bush-run FDA in laying down his judgment, the Associated Press reports:

n a thorough denunciation of the Bush administration, U.S. District Judge Edward Korman blasted the FDA's handling of the issue, saying it had "repeatedly and unreasonably" delayed issuing a decision on the medication.

The morning-after pill is a source of tension for social conservatives who held great sway in the Bush administration and who believe the pill is tantamount to abortion.

The ruling said the FDA in several instances had delayed issuing a ruling for suspect reasons and on two occasions only took action to facilitate the confirmation of acting FDA commissioners whose confirmations had been held up by the repeated delays.

"These political considerations, delays, and implausible justifications for decision-making are not the only evidence of a lack of good faith and reasoned decision-making," Korman said. "Indeed, the record is clear that the FDA's course of conduct regarding Plan B departed in significant ways from the agency's normal procedures regarding similar applications to switch a drug product from prescription to non-prescription use."

According to the AP, "the FDA's Advisory Committee voted 23 to 4 in 2003 to approve Plan B for over-the-counter status without age restrictions. However, out of nearly two dozen applications to move a prescription drug to over-the-counter status, the Plan B request was the only one not approved after the committee recommended it." In 2006, the medication was made available over the counter, but only to adults.

Korman's ruling, which must go into effect within 30 days, is a big step forward. But if the FDA approved the sale of the drug without age restrictions six years ago, and Judge Korman offered a scathing critique of the Bush administration's handling of the medication, why is it now only approved for women aged 17-and-up? What about 16, 15, and 14-year-old girls? Why restrict the age at all?

Bristol Palin appeared on Greta Van Susteren's show last night, and Van Susteren actually asked her if she was "lazy about or not interested in" contraception. Palin replied, "I don't want to get into detail about that," which probably means, "The condom broke, and you can't buy emergency contraception from the Wasilla pharmacist if you're the teenage daughter of the Alaskan governor who doesn't even support emergency contraception for victims of rape, or yeah, maybe I'm just fucking lazy, Greta."

She also says abstinence doesn't work, which is pretty awesome.

The full transcript after the jump.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN: "I don't want to pry too personally, but i mean, obviously contraception is an issue here. Is that something you're just uh, lazy about or not interested in, or do you have a philosophical or religious opposition to it, or?"

BRISTOL PALIN: "No, I don't want to get into detail about that, but i think abstinence is like, like the—I don't know how to put it—like, the main—everybody should be abstinent or whatever but it's not realistic at all."

GVS: "Why?"

BP: "Because—I don't want to get into detail about it."

GVS: "Well, without you being personal, just big picture, not an essay about you."

BP: "Because it's more accepted now."

Their reasoning? "Deeply held religious convictions" coupled with the belief "that the drug can act as an abortion-causing agent."

I'm interested to see how this pans out, especially in light of Bush's "conscience" rule, which was finalized yesterday. Illinois' ACLU reproductive rights project director Lorie Chaiten characterizes the conflict as between "the right to free exercise of religion and the right to access reproductive health care.”

Well, if Vander Bleek and Kosirog lose, they can always open up a pharmacy in Washington, D.C.