Frank Phillips’ letter (Feb. 15) deriding those who oppose Wal-Mart’s decision to ban emergency contraception from its pharmacies is factually inaccurate and fallacious as a whole.

Phillips implies that the availability of EC is an abortion issue. It is not. EC pills prevent ovulation or the implanting of the egg in the uterus, preventing pregnancy. Emergency contraception is just that – contraception. Not to belabor the obvious, but contraception avoids the need for an abortion.

Emergency contraception is used either when another contraceptive method has failed or after a rape.

Phillips contends that Wal-Mart’s decision to ban EC from its shelves is a “business decision.” Again, not to belabor the obvious, but businesses make money from selling merchandise, not refusing to sell it. The fact is that emergency contraception is the first and only medication that Wal-Mart has banned from its shelves. It was not a business decision, it was a deliberate act of discrimination against women.

Because emergency contraception is safe and legal and because the primary beneficiaries of the use of EC are women, Wal-Mart’s ban was discriminatory. The issue here is not business and not abortion. The issue here is whether men will deny women the ability to make their own health care decisions.

John Henderson, Auburn

Copy the Story Link