By Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
What is going on at Walgreens?
It’s a question people are asking, calling for a Walgreens boycott after a series of customer stories emerged on social media making claims about troubling barriers to health care and the way personal information is used by the pharmacy chain.
Over the last few weeks, people have said they were denied birth control pills and condoms at Walgreens. Another customer said she was sent a box of baby formula after buying a pregnancy test at the store.
The stories arrive during a tense time following the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, with people in many states facing a rollback of reproductive rights and the institution of abortion bans.
As Walgreens outlined in a tweet that has been resurfaced during the current conversation, the pharmacy chain allows pharmacists to refuse to fill a prescription if they have “a moral objection.” But they are supposed to ask another pharmacist to help the customer fill the prescription instead.
The provision for pharmacy sales covers birth control, emergency contraceptives, and anything an employee may find objectionable.
Earlier this month, a 20-year-old customer named Abigail Martin shared her experience at Walgreens on TikTok.
When she tried to fill the birth control prescription she had been taking for six years, she ran into an unexpected obstacle. Despite having multiple refills left, she got a text from Walgreens saying she had none remaining. After getting nowhere on the phone, she went to the store. ‘
Martin said that a Walgreens employee who was wearing two crosses looked her up and down, then told her the prescription could not be filled and that she’d have to contact her provider.
“I said ‘You won’t refill it or you can’t refill it?’” Martin said.
The employee again said to call her provider. After Martin called the doctor’s office, she was told she had four refills and they didn’t know why the pharmacy wasn’t filling the prescription. The office got in touch with Walgreens. Meanwhile, Martin got a text saying her prescription was delayed, followed by another saying it was … out of stock.
