LABOUR IN BOOTS BOYCOTT FURORE
Women urged to snub chemist for refusing, on principle, to cut price of morning-after pill
LABOUR MPs last night urged women to boycott Britain’s leading highstreet chemist over its refusal to cut the cost of the morning-after pill.
The MPs are backing demands by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service – the country’s biggest abortion provider – for pharmacists to halve the price of emergency contraception. While Tesco and Superdrug have agreed, Boots has said it will not do so.
The chain yesterday insisted it would continue to charge £28.25 for the morn- ing-after pill to avoid ‘incentivising inappropriate use’.
Its chief pharmacist said the pill polarised public opinion and that many felt the store should not supply it at all.
The stance has angered 35 female Labour MPs who have written to Boots to demand a change of course, calling the pill vital ‘back-up contraception’.
Yesterday, two of them urged women to ‘vote with their feet’. Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy said: ‘I am a strong
believer in consumer activism and people voting not just at the ballot box but with their shopping baskets.’
Pro-life campaigners accused Labour MPs and BPAS of ‘bullying’ behaviour.
Former minister Ann Widdecombe said that by pushing the use of morning-after pills, the Labour MPs were helping to promote unprotected sex, which would make it harder to tackle sexually-transmitted diseases.
Dr Peter Saunders, of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said: ‘Boots should stand firm and not be intimidated by the blackmail and bullying, and a handful of “usual suspect” radical feminist MPs with extreme views.’
Peter Williams, of the charity Right To Life, said: ‘We encourage those sympathetic to the dignity and rights of unborn children to write to Boots UK in support … and consider transferring their pharmaceutical custom away from other providers that have more cravenly caved to the bullying of the abortion lobby.’
BPAS receives £30million a year to provide about 60,000 abortions for the NHS. The charity has frequently courted controversy, largely thanks to outspoken chief executive Ann Furedi. It wants pharmacies to slash the cost of the morning-after pill Levonelle.
The branded drug now costs £13.50 at Tesco and a non-branded version is £13.49 in Superdrug.
But there has been no change at Boots, which yesterday insisted it would continue to charge £28.25 for Levonelle and £ 26.75 for its nonbranded equivalent.
Boots UK chief pharmacist Marc Donovan said it wanted to avoid the pill being misused or overused. ‘In our experience the subject of emergency
‘Twisted ideology’
hormonal contraception polarises public opinion and we receive frequent contact from individuals who voice their disapproval of the fact that the company chooses to provide this service,’ he said.
‘We would not want to be accused of incentivising inappropriate use, and provoking complaints, by significantly reducing the price.’
BPAS pointed out that emergency contraception can cost five times more in the UK than elsewhere in Europe.
The charity’s Clare Murphy said it was important for women to have a second chance of avoiding unwanted pregnancy. She added: ‘ Most people believe women should be able to access emergency contraception from pharmacies at an affordable price.
‘We urge Boots to listen to them and do the right thing by the women who shop in their stores. Boots needs to drop this hugely sexist surcharge.’
Yesterday 35 Labour MPs, including former leader Harriet Harman and ex-shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, wrote to Boots, saying: ‘It is completely unacceptable that British women have been paying up to £30 for a pill which costs a fraction of that to produce.
‘ The justification given by Boots was that it did not want to face complaints or to incentivise the use of emergency contraceptive. This infantilises women.’ The MPs said the price cut was ‘ supported by the majority of the public’.
Jess Phillips, MP for Birmingham Yardley, said: ‘It’s totally unacceptable and also totally commercial. They’re willing to take a moral stance if it pays them … I agree that we should boycott it.’
Miss Cooper told Boots on Twitter: ‘This is patronising and pathetic – keeping emergency contraception price too high cos you don’t trust women and are scared of critics.’ But Miss Widdecombe said: ‘What Boots is doing is acting in the interests of public health. Those who are campaigning against this haven’t thought this through.
‘Do they really want to encourage women to contract sexually-transmitted diseases?
‘This is the problem with Leftwing MPs – they are always bullying people because they always think they are right.’
Mark Bhagwandin, of the charity Life, said the Labour MPs were ‘out of order’. He accused BPAS of ‘trying to bully and interfere with the market in pursuance of its own twisted ideology’. Dr Saunders, of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said boycott calls were part of a BPAS campaign to ‘advance its agenda of abortion on demand up to birth and free contraception for all’.
A Boots spokesman said the price of emergency contraception in its stores was so high because it included ‘a professional healthcare consultation’.
He added: ‘We are extremely disappointed by the focus BPAS have taken in this instance.’