My name is Susanne Koestner, and I want to share something disturbing that happened to me earlier this month. On Sunday, June 10, I called in to the Walgreen’s Pharmacy at 10300 Central SE in Albuquerque to refill my birth control prescription. The pharmacist on duty told me that he couldn’t fill my prescription and said I would have to wait until the next day for another pharmacist to fill it. When I asked why, he said, “Because it’s against my religious beliefs.”
 
I needed my medication immediately and couldn’t wait until the next day. I was forced to drive to a different part of town to get my prescription filled. Walgreens put the burden on me to find a pharmacist that had no personal objections to the medication my doctor prescribed me.
 
Will you join me in asking Walgreens to ensure that their employees’ religious beliefs don’t compromise women’s health care?
 
While religious freedom is important, religion should not be used to discriminate against people, and that is what happened to me.  Something is very wrong when a man can walk in to any pharmacy and buy condoms, but a woman can’t fill a birth control prescription prescribed to her by a doctor. Employers shouldmake reasonable accommodations for employees’ individual religious beliefs, but they should never do so at the expense of others.
 
As a patient, I am at the mercy of licensed pharmacists and pharmacies when it comes to being able to receive the medications my doctor has prescribed for me. I do not believe that I should be unable to receive my medication based on the individual beliefs of each pharmacist.  It is Walgreens’ responsibility to provide seamless patient care to me.
 
Walgreen’s failed me in this respect, and I want to make sure that no other woman is ever refused essential health care. For many women in rural areas of New Mexico, there is no other pharmacy across town to go to if they are refused service.  And for many medications, including birth control pills, it is not acceptable to be forced to wait until a pharmacist with different beliefs is on duty to receive medication.
 
The ACLU of New Mexico and the Southwest Women’s Law Center sent a letter to Walgreens’ Corporate Headquarters yesterday, asking them to adopt a policy would guarantee that customers receive seamless care regardless of the beliefs of their individual employees. Please lend your voice as well by signing our petetition, and let Walgreens know that it is unacceptable to erect barriers between women and essential health care.
 
Sincerely,
Susanne Koestner
 
UPDATE: The Walgreens petition is now closed and has been sent to the company's district office headquarters. Thanks to the 1,084 people who took action on this important issue!

First Circuit Court says law denying federal benefits to married LGBT couples is unconstitutional
 
 
BOSTON, MA – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico praised today’s ruling by the First Circuit Court of Appeals that the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional because it denies married LGBT couples the same federal benefits available to other married couples. The decision, Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, was reached unanimously by the three-judge panel.
 
“The First Circuit clearly made the right call here,” said ACLU-NM Executive Director Peter Simonson. “LGBT couples are valued members of our communities. They work, pay taxes and contribute to the common good just like the rest of us. As the court held today, there is simply no permissible federal interest that justifies passing a discriminatory law like this.”
 
DOMA was enacted in 1996. Last year, President Obama said the Department of Justice would stop defending the constitutionality of the law. A few weeks ago, Obama made the historic announcement that, after giving the topic serious thought, he now supports marriage between same-sex couples.
 
“We’re living in an exciting moment in history,” said Simonson, “in which the general public, the courts and even the President of the United States are recognizing that the government has no business intruding into people’s family life. Times have changed. Here in New Mexico family is important, and LGBT individuals and couples are valued parts of our families. They’re our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. This case is additional evidence that the nation is moving toward a more tolerant, accepting future.”
 
Read the 1^st Circuit Court of Appeals decision here.
 
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a similar case in federal court on behalf of a woman who was forced to pay over $300,000 in taxes after the death of her spouse. Edie Windsor and Thea Spyer had spent for 44 years together as a committed couple. Edie nursed her wife through a long battle with multiple sclerosis, but Thea passed away in 2009.
 
Edie would not have had to pay the $300,000 if she had been married a man. The ACLU expects a decision in the case shortly.
 
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CONTACT: William Hudson
HC 71 Box 765
San Lorenzo, NM 88041
(575) 536 3092
[email protected]
 
 
SILVER CITY, NM - The Southwestern Chapter of the ACLU of New Mexico is sponsoring a singer/songwriter competition, in connection with its Annual Meeting, to be held on October 26, 2012.  Due to continuing attempts to suppress the legitimate right of American Citizens to vote; we are looking for songs that deal with voting rights issues.  The focus can be on the historic efforts to obtain voting rights by women or minority populations; or the loss of the ability to vote due to oppressive legislation.
 

• This competition is open to all musicians in the “Border Regions” of West Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, who write and perform in any musical genre.  The prize will be a 4 hour recording session, provided by our co-sponsor, Mountain Air Productions.   Mountain Air Productions is a state-of-the-art, digital recording studio and production house, located in the performance space of Seedboat Gallery, in Silver City, New Mexico.   All submissions must be original compositions of the Artist/Performer (maximum of 2 entries per Artist/Performer)
• Entry will be made on an official entry form (contact William Hudson, at [email protected]).
• Entrants will submit a tape or CD recording of their entry (It need not be a professional recording, but should be clean enough that the listener can hear the melody and musical interpretation).
• Entrants will submit a written copy of the lyrics (so that the appropriate theme and poetic quality can be evaluated).

 
All entries must be mailed to: ACLU/Competition
C/o Peter Falley
521 E. Lance Dr.
Silver City, NM 88061
 
Entries will be evaluated by the judging panel on;

• How appropriate the song is relative to the theme (The importance of voting, Civil Liberties/Constitutionality, as it relates to voting rights)
• Artistic lyrical styling, poetic interpretation
• Musical originality, styling

All entries must arrive no later than September 14, 2012.  Finalists will be notified no later than September 28, 2012.  Finalists need to be present at The Annual Meeting of the ACLU of New Mexico, Southwestern Chapter, in Silver City, NM, on Friday October 26, 2012.  On that evening, the finalists will perform their entry live for our audience and judges for final selection of the winner.
 

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