Those Target stores—you gotta love `em. They’re so cool, with their funky ads filled with dancing hipsters, their Todd Oldham housewares, their Michael Graves toasters and toilet brushes.

Well, maybe not.

Target allows its pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control and emergency contraception. Those tireless defenders of the American way at Americablog are on the case, and this is definitely a troubling development that deserves your attention. When a woman couldn’t get her prescription for EC filled at a Target, Planned Parenthood raised a stink. Target’s response?

From: Target.Response Target.Response@target.com Date: Oct 20, 2005 7:18 AM Subject: Filling Prescriptions at Target

Dear Target Guest,

Target places a high priority on our role as a community pharmacy and our obligation to meet the needs of the patients we serve. We expect all our team members, including our pharmacists, to provide respectful service to our guests, particularly when it comes to their health care needs.

Like many other retailers, Target has a policy that ensures a guest’s prescription for emergency contraception is filled, whether at Target or at a different pharmacy, in a timely and respectful manner. This policy meets the health care needs of our guests while respecting the diversity of our team members.

Your thoughts help us learn more about what our guests expect, so I’ll be sure to share your feedback with our pharmacy executives.

Thanks for taking the time to share your questions, thoughts and comments. I hope we’ll see you again soon at Target.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Hanson
Target Executive Offices

So Target’s position is basically this: If one of our phundie pharmacists doesn’t want to fill a woman’s EC prescription, we’ll send her running all over town, looking for a pharmacist who will—or might. And what if the next store a woman goes to has a pharmacist who’s a phundie too? “Well that’s just tough shit, lady,â€� say the hipsters at Target. “Maybe you shouldn’t have had sex, you sinner.â€� Oh, and what about the inevitable Target phundie pharmacist who doesn’t want send a woman who needs EC to a local pharmacist who will fill her prescriptions? What then, Target?

Americablog says…

You have to love Target. They’re willing to hire people who don’t want to do the very job they’re applying for. And their own employee’s bigotry and bias matters more to them than the emergency health needs of their own customers.

Americablog recommends…

Call Target’s press office (hey, we’re new media, and this will get their attention FAR more than calling their stupid customer services number).

Message:
Why is Target supporting radical right bigotry against its own customers? How dare they tell us they won’t fill our prescriptions because their pharmacists thinks we’re sinner? Would they turn away Jews if their pharmacist were a conservative Catholic or Baptist? Would they turn away gays if their pharmacist thinks they’re abominations? Would they turn away people with AIDS because, you know, they’re hardly “innocent”? Demand answers.

Susan Kahn, 1-612-761-6735
Cathy Wright, 1-612-761-6627 or 1-847-615-1538
Paula Thornton-Greear, 612-696-3400
Carolyn Brookter, 1-612-696-6557

Dan says: Call and tell Target where they can stick those fucking Michael Graves toasters. A boycott may be in order. At the very least we should picket a Target or two in the Seattle area. Seattle is solidly pro-choice, and there are plenty of other soul-crushing, big-box stores where we can buy cheaply made crap.