Anti-Birth Control Pharmacy a Prescription for Failure          PDF         
http://www.sexparty.org.au/index.php/news/os-news/691-anti-birth-control-pharmacy-a-prescription-for-failure
Written by Staff | carnalnation.com   
Tuesday, 13 April 2010 03:46

A pharmacy in Chantilly, VA that tried to attract a conservative clientele by refusing to sell birth control, found out the hard way that you make more money from what you do sell than what you don't sell. According to the Washington Times, DMC Pharmacy (Divine Mercy Care) closed its doors on March 4, only 18 months after opening because of a lack of funds.

In addition to birth control, the DMC Pharmacy also didn't stock cosmetics, cigarettes, or pornographic magazines, which led at least one CarnalNation staffer to wonder aloud what the hell they were selling. The Times article also notes that they weren't selling toys or fast food, which, quite frankly, makes DMC Pharmacy start to sound suspiciously like Monty Python's empty cheese shop.

So what did DMC provide for its customers? Apparently, they had a very nice picture of Saint John Leonardi, the patron saint of pharmacists, above a collection of booklets on "natural family planning." Although they had little to sell, they hoped to build clientele based on their moral stance in an area with a large number of Catholics, and the ability to provide personalized advice from the pharmacist. Robert Laird, DMC's executive director, said:

"You would have thought we could have made it happen," Mr. Laird admitted. "We were a niche. We were set up to cater to those who wanted that type of personal service. Once people came in, it was great. The pharmacist did so much more than dispense drugs."

But most customers only needed occasional medications and DMC never connected, he said, with patients needing the kind of maintenance medications that are the bread and butter for most pharmacies.

One type of those very profitable maintenance medications, of course, is birth control pills. Millions of women buy a refill for their birth control every month, for years on end.

Pam Spaulding, on Pam's House Blend, makes an excellent point, which is that the fate of DMC Pharmacy is a good example of how the Catholic Church makes assumptions about what American Catholics are like:

This is what happens when the Catholic Church overreaches, putting its head in the sand, thinking American Catholics in Chantilly, Va, which has 20K parishioners in the area and four local churches teeming with 30K additional followers of Papa Ratzi: 1) don't use birth control, 2) don't smoke, and 3) don't read porn.

With the demise of DMC Pharmacy, there are now six remaining pharmacies in the United States that refuse to sell contraceptives "on the grounds they caused abortions, lead to promiscuity or endangered a woman's health," according to Times story.

Source: http://carnalnation.com/