[Vision2020] Pharmacy Had Plenty of Moral Convictions, Few Clients

[Tom Hansen]

What happens when a Christian morals-first pharmacy doesn't sell birth
control, condoms, porn, tobacco or makeup?

Well, it goes out of business, for one thing.

Courtesy of the Washington Post at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/12/AR2010041204107_pf.html

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Virginia pharmacy had plenty of moral convictions, few clients

By Petula Dvorak
Tuesday, April 13, 2010; B01

The Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy in Chantilly proudly and purposefully
limited what it would stock on its shelves. But it turns out that no birth
control pills, no condoms, no porn, no tobacco and even no makeup added up
to one thing:

No customers.

The self-described "pro-life" pharmacy went out of business last month,
less than two years after it opened to great fanfare, with a Catholic
priest sprinkling holy water on the strip-mall store tucked between an
Asian supermarket and a scuba shop.

No word on whether he returned for last rites.

The drugstore was one of a handful across the country that have put the
moral conviction of a pharmacist at the forefront of a business. And as a
business model, that's fine, I guess.

The nearby scuba store shouldn't be required to sell Snuba equipment, the
Airsoft Guns shop across the street shouldn't have to sell the Kalashnikov
paintball model and, of course, Lotus Vegetarian down the way shouldn't
have to serve up burgers.

John T. Bruchalski, president of Divine Mercy Care and the doctor who
opened the pharmacy, then had to close it, said he wanted a place where
pharmacists "could bring their conscience into the store, rather than hang
it up at the door when they entered."

Unfortunately, the location was within walking distance of at least one
other drugstore and across the street from a Kmart with a pharmacy.

It makes little sense to make another stop to fill a prescription across
the street for moral reasons, especially considering that Kmart is
probably a regular shopping place for even the most devout Christians. I
mean, where else can you get a $14.99 cubic zirconia cross, a $1.49
Blessed Mother candle, lawn fertilizer for that lawn your lovely offspring
will play on and a crockpot for the church cook-off under one roof?

"The biggest negative was that convenience factor," Bruchalski said.

A half-dozen similar pharmacies in such places as Louisiana, Florida and
Indiana are faring just fine, said Karen Brauer, president of Pharmacists
for Life International, a coalition of pharmacists who also have moral
issues with the full array of services that their profession entails.

The Chantilly pharmacy opened as an offshoot of Divine Mercy Care in
Fairfax and the Tepeyac Family Center, which adhere to the teachings of
the Catholic Church.

It opened amid a string of well-publicized incidents in the United States
and abroad in which pharmacists refused to fill women's prescriptions for
birth control or the morning-after pill and, in some cases, refused to
refer the women to another pharmacist or return the prescription to her.

When it opened, the folks at Divine Mercy Care said they also wouldn't
refer patients elsewhere. But in their nearly two years in business, there
were no reported incidents of women turned away, humiliated or scolded.
Bruchalski said they were very careful to advertise exactly who they were
and what they believed.

Still, it always seemed a bit out of place. In a shopping area where women
in colorful saris pass by spiky-haired kids looking at animé books and
people dropping hounds at doggie day camp, and where so many languages,
nationalities, colors and sizes blend, a business that relied on
restriction rather than openness did not quite fit.

On a busy weekend shopping day, after marveling at a 26-pound jackfruit
and thousands of noodle varieties at the neighboring Asian supermarket, I
stood outside the closed pharmacy and asked passersby if they missed it.

"I didn't even notice it when it was open," one woman said. About a dozen
others said basically the same thing.

Shoppers in Northern Virginia apparently weren't clamoring for a place to
pick up cough medicine that also didn't sell porn, cigs and mascara.
Selections of these wicked products (especially mascara -- have you seen
the array recently? Glittery! Lengthening! Stiletto lashes! Such
naughtiness!) are available in just about every supermarket and big-box
store across the country.

"The marketplace spoke, and women voted with their feet," said Marcia
Greenberger of the National Women's Law Center, a Washington advocacy
group.

The other places across the country where the pharmacies are doing well
are in more rural areas, where there isn't the abundant competition that
Divine Mercy Care faced, Bruchalski said.

But that's the big problem with permitting pharmacies to dictate what they
want to prescribe, Greenberger said. "What about places where women don't
have alternatives?" she asked.

Perhaps Divine Mercy was doomed by its competition, or maybe, despite the
Sunday Mass boosterism of the Divine Mercy business, Northern Virginia
Catholics aren't as pro-life the rest of the week.

Research conducted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
estimated that only 4 percent of married, Catholic couples use natural
family planning.

And as anyone who has been to church lately knows, many Catholic women
also use mascara.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown