A New Jersey man learned the hard way that some folks aren’t ready for men to play an equal role in contraception.
There is no shortage of calls for men to “step up” when it comes to parenting and birth control. And I agree. Men and women are in this together and both sides should be pulling weight so to speak.
I’m sure that is what employees at a Rite Aid drugstore in Jersey City had in mind when they refused to sell a supply of Plan B pills (aka “the morning after pill”) to 25 year old Andrew Andrade, right? Yes, you read that right.
On April 23 Andrade went to the drugstore to purchase them for his girlfriend and was told that he could not buy them. Why could he not buy them? “I can’t sell it to you because you are male.”
That’s right. Apparently Rite Aid, or at least this particular Rite Aid seems to have a policy against men buying Plan B pills.
Thankfully there was another drugstore down the street, Bond Drugs, that had no problem selling them to him.
As we can see, we have a bit of a mix-up in messages here. We hear calls for men to take responsibility for contraception, but in cases like this, when we do we have to put up with being denied the ability to do so.
What do you think?
Is there a clear message on what society wants men to do in regards to birth control?
Is this a sign that some people just don’t want men to do their part?
If a more complex version of an over the counter male birth control option were to hit the market would we then have the occasional story of women being told they can’t buy it because they are female?