Goals of Pharmacy Outreach
What Outreach/Protest at CVS and Walgreens
can Achieve
Currently, the most significant provocation of business support of abortion is CVS and Walgreens embracing chemical abortion by prescription beginning in March of 2024. Pro-Life Waco immediately launched pharmacy protests and chemical abortion education in Waco. PLW also encouraged and supported other groups across the nation to join this campaign. The new Pro-Life in the Public Square organization and this website are a direct outgrowth of this CVS and Walgreens abomination. Why should you jump on board this outreach initiative in the public square? Please read on.
1. Curb and contain the launch of pharmacy abortions.
Our strong public witness at CVS and Walgreens deters expansion beyond the initial states.
On March 1, 2024, these corporations revealed the six initial states, CA, IL, NY, PA, MA, and RI. CVS and Walgreens will face difficulties. These can include resistance from medical professionals, lawsuits resulting from abortion complications, etc. Strong and growing Pharmacy Outreach nationwide will become another major headache. Slowing and limiting state-to-state expansion can be a pro-life success. CVS and Walgreens have 18,000 pharmacies. No doubt, there is one in (or near) your hometown awaiting your challenge.
2. Deliver a strong message to “other” pharmacy chains to STAY OUT.
Walmart, Costo, and grocery chains have ignored the abortion industry and Democratic party pressures to join CVS and Walgreens. The New York City government has threatened to remove investments of government employee pension funds from pharmacy chains refusing to become abortion clinics. So far, bullying and threats have struck out. Protests at CVS and Walgreens can help ensure this will never work. Keeping chemical abortion out of Walmart, etc., is an urgent and doable goal. However, outreach must come strongly and broadly to keep the other pharmacy chains on the sidelines. This will be a big public image victory for pro-life and will maintain customer choice for prescription drugs.
3. Education on chemical abortion.
Being on the sidewalks for pharmacy outreach creates a huge opportunity to inform, educate, and persuade about chemical abortion. Pro-Life Waco has created a flyer on chemical abortion, the procedure used in 60% to 70% of abortions in America. The flyer describes chemical abortion, dangers to women, abortion pill reversal, and how to transfer prescriptions. We can engage pharmacy customers, managers, employees, pedestrians, and travelers.
4. Tarnished public image and financial losses.
Using signs, literature, and conversations, we bring public image and financial losses. These corporations brazenly announced their launch into the chemical abortion market. Business manager abhor controversy at their stores. Life defenders and outreach signs at their sidewalks upset their financial and image apple carts. Both CVS and Walgreens are in deteriorating business conditions. Hundreds of stores are slated for closure in the next four years. It is urgent for foot soldiers in EVERY state should protest the repugnant corporate decisions of CVS and Walgreens. We are more powerful than we might think.
5. Counterbalance media bias and neglect.
The mainstream media, from national to local, is overwhelmingly against us. Published news stories present us in negative ways and abortion supporters as saintly heroes. There is a second facet of our problem with the press. They frequently ignore newsworthy events that would benefit the anti-abortion cause. It may be better for pro-life to face biased coverage than no coverage at all! During this century in Waco, Texas, we have seen a dramatic decline in press coverage of pro-life events. At the national level, the annual March for Life in DC is broadly ignored. Another example was the “see-no-evil” response to 115 late-term aborted fetuses discovered in DC in April of 2022.
What can we do beyond complaining? One needed response is broad and robust Public Square Outreach throughout the nation. This directly and broadly engages the full spectrum of public sentiment. We must become active participants in the media by directly engaging our communities and influencing public sentiment. Thousands see our billboards and yard signs. They see their neighbors at sidewalks, overpasses, county fairs, etc. They receive the message that they have neighbors who deeply care about the shedding of innocent blood, and they should too. For the mushy middle, out of sight is out of mind. We must bring ourselves and our messages in sight.
6. Lessons from the civil rights movement.
The civil rights movement relied substantially on Public Square Outreach to penetrate the thinking of a broad cross-section of America. Historic episodes included the lunch counter desegregation movement of 1960. This ignited on February 1 in Greensboro, NC, when four black college students took seats at a Woolworths department store. The movement quickly spread throughout Southern states, changing hearts, minds, and votes. On July 25, 1960, Woolworths integrated lunch counters in all its stores. Let’s make the Walgreens pharmacy become the Woolworths lunch counter of the pro-life movement.