The hashtag #BoycottWalgreens is going around Twitter after the company’s questionable practices when it comes to distributing birth control methods got called out by angry customers online.
Earlier this month, a woman named Jessica Pentz tried to purchase condoms at a Walgreens location in Wisconsin but was refused by a male employee who told Pentz he couldn’t sell her the condoms because it went against his religious beliefs. Pentz’s partner shared the strange interaction on Twitter which has since prompted more people to come forward with their own stories of Walgreens employees refusing to issue medication and forms of birth control because of their “faith.”
We went to Hayward to get some groceries and a stop at @Walgreens because we had left Jess birth control at home. As Jess was checking out, cashier John told her he couldn’t sell her the condoms. “Oh I got them from over there.”
“We can, but I won’t because of my faith.” 1/x
— Nate Pentz (@natepentz) July 3, 2022
One Twitter user shared that the chain had sent her a box filled with baby formula after she purchased a pregnancy test. In her post, she shared that the test was taken at the request of her doctor but noted that she bought the test with her Walgreen’s rewards card which meant the company must be selling her information to Enfamil, the makers of the formula box. Even more disturbing, the box came free of charge during a national formula shortage that’s hitting low-income mothers hard.
Dear @Walgreens I received this package today a week after purchasing a pregnancy test at your store. I was asked to take the test by my doctor despite having no Fallopian tubes. 1/X pic.twitter.com/EZTsTPf7jd
— Nicole (@melancholynsex) July 17, 2022
THERE IS A FORMULA SHORTAGE, and yet @Enfamil is sending out formula all willy-nilly based on the data you clearly sold them. Shame on you @Enfamil 3/X
— Nicole (@melancholynsex) July 17, 2022
Another Walgreens customer posted a TikTok video claiming that the pharmacist on duty — a woman with “two crosses hanging from her neck” — refused to fill her prescription for birth control despite having refills approved by her doctor’s office. The young woman was reportedly told she had no refills left, then told her birth control was delayed, then told it was out of stock. Walgreens spokesperson Kris Lathan told Newsweek that instances of employees denying medications and other products to customers based on their religious beliefs are “very rare” but that the company supports employees exercising their “religious freedoms.”
“Our policies are designed to ensure we meet the needs of our patients and customers while respecting the religious and moral beliefs of our team members,” he said.
https://www.tiktok.com/@rebekkablue/video/7121919325161737518
The company also has a history of donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to organizations that are infringing on people’s moral beliefs — just not the ones they support. Walgreens has given nearly half a million dollars to anti-abortion groups. They’ve also bankrolled 11 members of the Sedition Caucus — the Congressmen who refused to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win. It seems fairly clear where their priorities lie, especially in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Roe reversal.