Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said: "It is remarkable that there are pharmacies across this country where a woman can walk in with a prescription for birth control and not be able to have it filled. It would be outrageous if an anti-choice-controlled Congress were to take action that could defend - or even encourage - such a thing. Politicians should be supporting personal responsibility and personal freedom, not empowering those who try to impose their ideological values on women trying to access basic health care."

Keenan also pointed to recent polling that shows 80 percent of Americans oppose allowing pharmacists to refuse to fill women’s prescriptions for birth control. Even 74 percent of self-described "pro-life" voters oppose these refusals.

"The overwhelming majority of Americans want to protect women’s access to birth control," Keenan said. "It is astounding that, 40 years after a landmark Supreme Court case that established a right to privacy and legalized the use of birth control, Congress could be considering turning back the clock and blocking women’s access to birth control."

While no legislation has yet been introduced to protect discriminatory pharmacies, the July 25 hearing could indicate that such a measure is in the works. Bills have been introduced, in both the House and Senate, to protect women’s health by protecting their prescriptions. Among other proposals, in April 2005, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Chris Shays (R-CT) introduced the Access to Legal Pharmaceuticals Act ("ALPhA"), which would ensure that pharmacies fill all legal, valid prescriptions. However, to date, anti-choice congressional leaders refused action on ALPHa and all other related bills.