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#BoycottWalgreens trends after pharmacy chain refuses to sell birth control products like condoms

The second-largest pharmacy store in the US faced backlash after allegedly refusing to sell birth control products to its customers

Walgreens faced calls for a boycott after its pharmacists and clerks were accused of refusing customers birth control products. The second-largest pharmacy store in the US faced backlash on social media after an article published by The Star Tribune detailed how a Minnesota woman named Jessica Pentz was denied condoms by a Walgreens clerk based on a religious objection.

The incident allegedly took place over the Fourth of July weekend, when Pentz visited an outlet while vacationing in Wisconsin with her husband Nate, who also corroborated his wife's claims.

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Speaking to the Tribune, Pentz said the clerk in question told her he couldn't "sell those" due to "what [his] faith demands." The sale was later completed by the store's manager while the clerk allegedly walked away with "a smirk." Responding to the incident, a Walgreens spokesperson told the newspaper that the company's policy "allows team members to step away from completing a transaction to which they have a moral objection and refer the transaction to a fellow team member or manager who will complete the customer's request."

Meanwhile, a recent TikTok post by a woman named Abigail Martin also sparked outrage after she claimed in a video that a Walgreens employee refused to fill her birth control pill prescription and lied about why she couldn't do it, including falsifying her prescription records to show that she had no refills left. The prescription was eventually filled by another worker, but Martin spoke out against the attempted denial and linked it to the Supreme Court's recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. "When I told her what I was there for, my birth control, she looks me up and down and goes, 'Hmm...' She then says, 'Yeah, we're not going to refill that prescription," Martin said in the video post. "So first, they want us to stop getting pregnant and having abortions, but and then they don't want to help us prevent that pregnancy."

"Evidently the #BoycottWalgreens started with this INSANE story of how one pharmacist went to all sorts of schemes to deny this woman her birth control refill," Mother Jones editor-in-chief Clara Jeffery tweeted. "Not just *refused to personally do it* but apparently lied about medical records"

Calls to boycott Walgreens ramped up on social media platforms. "#BoycottWalgreens@Walgreens Allowing employees to refuse to ring someone up for birth control is really bad customer service. This will cause customers to feel uncomfortable at the checkout. My $24,000+ a year in prescriptions for the past 4 years will be going elsewhere," one tweeted.

"Walgreens is allowing it's staff to refuse to sell condoms and other birth control if it's against their morals. I bet they still fucking fill Viagra prescriptions! #BoycottWalgreens," another fumed.

That said, the pharmacy chain was also slammed over unverified claims that it tracked customers who purchased items like pregnancy tests and used the information in its marketing efforts. "PSA for Americans: @Walgreens apparently sells data about pregnancy test sales to third parties, presumably in states where abortion is criminalized. Don't use plastic to buy pregnancy tests at Walgreens. (Or anything else.) Your privacy and safety is of no interest to them," author Charlie Stross wrote on Twitter while sharing a thread from a woman who claimed she received an unsolicited box filled with Enfamil infant formula after purchasing a pregnancy test at a Walgreens outlet.

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As reported by Insider, Walgreens previously said it would be expanding its "existing travel reimbursement benefits" to cover "any medical, surgical, mental or substance abuse benefits" after the Supreme Court decision to nullify federal abortion rights protections. But, at the the same time, the company has donated $496,700 to anti-abortion rights political action committees since 2016, according to an analysis published by Popular Information shortly after a SCOTUS draft opinion of the controversial decision was leaked in May.

Conservatives, however, clapped back at the "woke" calls to boycott Walgreens. "Remember when the woke applauded pharmacies refusing to fill ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine Rxs? Now they want to #BoycottWalgreens over the very same thing? These hypocrites can kiss my ass," talkshow host Joe Pagliarulo tweeted. "#BoycottWalgreens is trending because leftists are learning there are people with moral convictions in the world," director Jeff Hunt added.