This is getting weird.

The earlier I search, the less information I find about this incident in Fenton, Mo. And the more I look at news sources rather than advocacy groups, the more ambiguity and contradiction I find. Please, planned parenthood- do not turn out to be manufacturing scandal where none existed before. That's totally what the other side does. FUCK.

From Saveroe.com on 10/27/05

"A 26-year-old Missouri woman was refused EC when she handed her prescription to a pharmacist at a Target store in Fenton, MO, on September 30. The woman was told by the pharmacist, “I won’t fill it. It’s my right not to fill it.” Target does not support a policy to have valid prescriptions for birth control, including emergency contraception, filled in-store without discrimination or delay!"

Buyblue.org merely rephrases the saveroe blurb, and lists them as a source.

One week EARLIER, on Oct. 20, 2005, in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, in an article on a recent flurry of activities by Planned Parenthood, I was able to find vague mention of the incident.

"Two days ago, Planned Parenthood organized pickets outside the district office of Target in Bridgeton, to protest what the organization says was a Target pharmacist's refusal on Sept. 30 to fill a woman's order for emergency contraception.

A Target spokeswoman said the chain's own investigation determined that no such incident occurred. The woman claiming to have submitted the prescription said in a telephone interview Wednesday that it did." (Mannies, J. For Planned Parenthood, active month shows that it's in the game. St. Louis Post-Dispatch 10/20/05 pg. d3)
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There was also this article, in the same paper, the day before.

Blog after blog, organization after organization uses the planned parenthood press release as their source. Goddamn. As far as I can tell, every bit of information floating around the web on this incident, other than the two mentions in the P-D, comes directly from Planned Parenthood. The age of the woman, the dialogue between her and the pharmacist, what happened after.

I am seriously trying SO HARD to find a newspaper article on the incident in Fenton. I'm trying so hard to confirm that what happened, happened. I have so far been able to confirm that there IS a Fenton, Missouri. There IS a Target, with an in-store pharmacy in Fenton.

I feel like Peter Sarsgaard in Shattered Glass, here.

You know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to write to Jo Mannies, of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Maybe she/he can tell me something more. I'm searching and searching and searching...and getting very nervous. If someone could just point me to one more newspaper article prior to the Dan Savage mention on 11/17/05, I'd be fucking delighted.

Plus, how's this for irony- going into my kitchen today, I was injured by a -coat hanger-. The skin on my foot is ripped open and really, really hurts. I am still pro-choice, however. But from now on, kids, lets use knitting needles, yes?