From The Daily Collegian

Activist groups band together to protest against Wal-Mart

By Megan Daley, Collegian Staff
November 21, 2005

HADLEY - The Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts joined more than 100 protesters outside of Wal-Mart yesterday to speak out against Wal-Mart's policies and expansion plans.

The Massachusetts chapter of Planned Parenthood organized a statewide protest outside of three different Wal-Marts. According to Diana Huet, a member of Planned Parenthood, these three stores are nearest to the Planned Parenthood clinics in Massachusetts. The other protests were held in Northborough and Quincy.

Planned Parenthood organized these protests in response to Wal-Mart's continued refusal to carry emergency contraception in its pharmacies. Emergency Contraceptives, also known as the "morning after pill" can be taken up to 120 hours after unprotected sex, or sex in which the couple feels their primary contraceptive failed, (i.e., a broken condom.)

Planned Parenthood members helped organize the larger-scale protest in Hadley by joining with other groups that have recently been protesting against Wal-Mart. The Hadley Neighbors for Sensible Development, who have been fighting Wal-Mart's plans to expand into a SuperCenter, along with conservationists, workers union groups including Jobs for Justice and the newly formed Coalition to Change and Challenge Wal-Mart all banded together for the rally.

Jackie Dauphinais, a unionized nurse and a member of Jobs for Justice and the Coalition helped organize the rally. They encouraged protesters to hold signs along Route 9 and to walk through the parking lot discouraging customers to shop at Wal-Mart.

Speakers such as Al Norman, an anti-Wal-Mart activist from Greenfield and Aron Goldman, a representative from stopsprawlmart.org talked about Wal-Mart's mistreatment of its workers and their failure to pay for their employees' health care.

"You want me to unveil Wal-Mart's newest health plan?" asked Norman as he held up a box of bandages. "This is it."

A group of singers called the Raging Grannies also performed at the rally. They sang several songs with lyrics such as "Look at Wal-Mart in your city, where people often shop. It's a store that sells cheap products made in terrible sweatshops," to the tune of "Clementine."

Huet also gave a speech about Wal-Mart's refusal to carry emergency contraceptives. She said that even those victims of sexual assault would be turned away if seeking emergency contraception from Wal-Mart because of the store's "moral issues" with the product.

"Wal-Mart is under great pressure from the religious right," said Huet, "They feel they can impose their morals on others."

According to the MetroWest Daily News, Wal-Mart officials told protestors in Northborough yesterday that the decision not to carry emergency contraceptives was a "business decision," claiming that the short shelf-life of the product made it a bad investment to carry. However, when one of the protestors called a pharmacist, she was told that emergency contraceptives actually have shelf-life of two years.

Planned Parenthood believes that part of the "moral issue" that people have with emergency contraceptives is that they misperceive them to be a kind of abortion pill. According to a flyer by Planned Parenthood, however, the pill "does not work if you are already pregnant and will not harm a developing fetus."

Planned Parenthood says another mis-perception that contributes to resistance of their demands is the idea that they are "pro-abortion." They are actually pro-choice, they say, which is very different. According to the Planned Parenthood website, "pro-choice means supporting access to all reproductive options - whether it's motherhood, contraception, abortion or adoption - and supporting the right of all individuals to make their own personal decisions about when and whether to have a child."

Police were present at the rally, but needed to take no action as both the protesters and the Wal-Mart shoppers and employees were peaceful.

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