Walmart has been put on notice that it needs to start stocking emergency contraception (also known as 'Plan B') in all of it's Massachusetts stores which offer pharmacy services. Until now, Walmart only offered emergency contraception in it's Illinois stores and only because just as in MA, it was required under law to start doing so.

The state pharmacy board ordered Wal-Mart on Tuesday to stock emergency contraception pills at its stores in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts becomes second state to require the world's largest retailer to carry the morning-after pill.

A Wal-Mart spokesman said the company would comply with the directive by the Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy and is reviewing its nationwide policy on the drug.

"Clearly women's health is a high priority for Wal-Mart," spokesman Dan Fogleman said. "We are actively thinking through the issue."

Some women in the blogosphere aren't so sure that womens health is really such a high priority for Walmart. Bitch, PhD says:

Clearly, however, women's health--as opposed to, oh, not being sued--is a high priority for them. Which is, of course, why so many of their women employees don't have employer-provided health care. They're givers, those folks at Wal-Mart.

Ouch. And over at Inspirational Lifestyle, Walmart's proffered rationale for not stocking Plan B- that it was merely a business decision and not a moral one- is being met with skepticism:

"I would respect WM more if they just came out and said that they don't think it's morally right to fill Plan B; at least then they'd be speaking honestly. Why hide behind the vague "business decision" excuse?

Opponents argue that making Plan B readily available would increase promiscuity. I doubt it. High school kids have been getting themselves knocked up for ages without having this available-why would stupidity increase now?"

And don't forget, Walmart apparently sells condoms...just food for thought.

Renee, over at Up on a Christian Hill, doesn't think selling Plan B is such a good idea, however:

It's been a crappy V-Day here Wal-Mart is being force to carry "Plan B" up here in Massachusetts by NARAL. Nothing says romance like taking the equivalent of 8 progesterone birth control pills in a 12-hour period for that special hook up. You'll know if a guy is interested in a second date if he goes dutch on the cost of the pills.

Clearly, the battle over reproductive freedom is no longer taking place just outside of clinics and courtrooms- it has shifted to pharmacies across America as pharmaceutical/medical advances allow women more privacy with respect to these sorts of choices.

Somehow I don't think we've heard the last of this issue.