Walgreens clinics run by Catholic organization to include birth control

August 25, 2016
By Tribune news services

The nonprofit Catholic organization SSM Health will provide birth control pills at the 26 clinics inside St. Louis-area Walgreens stores that it began operating Thursday, an SSM spokesman said.

Four groups, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, wrote letters to SSM and Walgreens on Aug. 18, asking whether the clinics would be restricted by religious doctrine from allowing consultations on birth control and referrals for abortions.

SSM spokesman Jason Merrill said in a phone interview Thursday that the clinics will provide 30-day refills for contraceptive pills previously prescribed by a physician —€” the same policy followed by the clinics previously, when they were run in-house by Walgreens. A website for the clinics shows a long list of services, everything from vaccinations and wellness checkups to treatment for illness and injury, but it makes no reference to birth control.

The new clinics, operated by a nurse practitioner, will be known as the SSM Health Express Clinic at Walgreens. Twenty-two of them are in Missouri, and four are in Illinois.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-walgreens-clinics-ssm-birth-control-20160825-story.html