Brigid Leahy [Vice President of Public Action, Illinois Planned Parenthood Council]: "We are pleased with the outcome of the settlement in Menges, et al v. Blagojevich. Our concern has always been for the woman who needs her prescription for contraception filled. The settlement ensures that women in Illinois will continue to have their prescriptions filled without hassle or delay. As long as pharmacies guarantee that prescriptions will be filled, we are not concerned with what happens behind the scenes.

Several years ago we started to hear complaints from some Planned Parenthood patients that they were being refused when they went to the pharmacy to pick up their prescriptions. Sometimes the pharmacist even lectured the patient. Some of our patients were embarrassed in front of other customers. A few were told things like "If you take this, you'll kill your baby." Several were delayed in getting their medication for several days, putting them at risk of unintended pregnancy. Causing an unnecessary delay in obtaining time sensitive medication is medically irresponsible. Moreover, giving false information while humiliating and demeaning a patient is simply unprofessional.

Our experience told us that the overwhelming majority of pharmacists and pharmacies perform their duties professionally. We have a great working relationship with most pharmacists and pharmacies in the communities we serve. But, we were still having problems with a few. We brought our concerns to the Illinois Department of Professional regulation and the Blagojevich Administration which enacted the pharmacy rule requiring pharmacies that stock contraceptives to fill those prescriptions without delay. We knew the rule would have little effect on the day to day operations of most pharmacies because most pharmacies were already serving women well. Now this settlement addresses those few cases in which a pharmacist chooses to invoke his personal religious beliefs over the medical needs of a patient. In those cases, the refusing pharmacist will step away and the pharmacy will implement a system so that the patient's needs will be addressed without her having to go somewhere else or ever knowing that an individual pharmacist disagrees with her right to medical care. This is a reasonable result for the women of Illinois."