Pharmacist sues to force contraceptive coverage

from Credo and Credo wire services

 SEATTLE - A 26-year-old pharmacist sued her employer, the nation's oldest family-owned drug store chain, accusing the company of sexual discrimination for not including contraceptives in its health plan.

 Jennifer Erickson, filed the lawsuit July 19 in federal court against Bartell Drug Co. seeking class-action status for the suit, described as the first of its kind in the nation.

 "The suit filed today will affect all of the women employed by Bartell Drug Company," Erickson said at a news conference. "But that's not enough. There are 60 million women of childbearing age in this country and I am standing up for them too."

Officials of Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest seller of contraceptives and abortion attended. Bartell, based in Seattle, did not immediately return calls for comment. Women's groups have been trying to force employers to cover contraceptives in their insurance policies for several years. Last year, 60 groups asked the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to instruct employers that excluding contraceptives from their health plans amounts to sex discrimination.

Mike O'Dea, executive director of the Christus Medicus Foundation, (watchdog for Catholic-friendly and educator of issues that are for and against religious principles) monitors the medical industry (take out and lobbies) for Catholic-friendly legislation, suit Planned Parenthood's involvement in the suit did not surprise him.

He said Planned Parenthood is currently conducting an extensive lobbying effort to mandate contraception coverage through legislation in many states. "In the last few months, 34 states have introduced bills mandating contraception coverage, and Michigan is one of these states," said the Southfield-based health insurance consultant.

In 1998, Congress required that health plans for federal employees cover prescription contraceptives. The debate became particularly charged after the introduction of Viagra, the male impotence pill, which some insurers cover, although Bartell Drug Co. later issued a statement that it does not cover Viagra either.

Erickson said she didn't like having to pay for her own birth control pills, which can cost between $20 and $30 a month. Contraceptives should be considered part of a woman's basic health-care needs and it is unfair to deny coverage for them, Erickson said. "She is simply mouthing the recommendations of Planned Parenthood, and not American women," said O'Dea.

He said in 1993, the Alan Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood, recommended that all health insurance plans include 100 percent coverage for all reproductive services, which include abortion, contraception, sterilization and in vitro fertilization and artificial insemination. Even though all these practices are against Catholic teaching, Planned Parenthood has no intention of offering a conscience clause, said O'Dea.

"Another goal in mandating contraception and related services," said O'Dea, "is to keep this information confidential from parents and spouses." "The end goal of all of this is to force all Americans to pay for procedures that are unhealthy and repugnant to their moral and religious convictions," said O'Dea.

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