Sexist-theocratic pharmacist blows his wad of an argument

The Abrams Report (MSNBC)

Did you catch Lloyd Duplantis on "The Abrams Report"? The oily and drawly Duplantis -- think Rod Steiger in "In the Heat of the Night" -- is an activist pharmacist who refuses to sell birth control at his pharmacy in Louisiana. Because of safety issues, he says, not religious ones. Right.

Duplantis declared that oral contraceptives are "dangerous chemicals that have killed more women than any other drug in the history of the world and we're going to continue to say it because it's killing women and their babies."

Not up on his fundie code speak, Abrams missed the "killing their babies" connection: this guy is a fundamentalist who views the physiologic effects of oral contraceptives as equivalent to abortion.

Abrams also didn't ask Duplantis who the "we" are he's referring to. Does Duplantis belong to an organized group of like-minded pharmacists?* Or is he referring to his church group? Oh well.

But Abrams did manage to expose some of the hypocrisy Duplantis practices in his little sexist and theocratic fiefdom of a pharmacy, and you don't have to inhale deeply to catch a strong whiff of the fundamentalist here.

ABRAMS: Mr. Duplantis, just admit this is about religion. Just admit it...
DUPLANTIS: It's absolutely...
ABRAMS: Come clean. Come clean.
DUPLANTIS: ... the only thing religious about this is the fact that because I have a moral conscience I want to help women. . . .
ABRAMS: All right.
DUPLANTIS: ... and birth control pills are way much more terrible than any hormone replacement therapy...
ABRAMS: Do you sell Viagra? Do you sell Viagra?
DUPLANTIS: Absolutely.
ABRAMS: Really?
DUPLANTIS: It's a different type drug all together.
ABRAMS: OK. All right. OK...
DUPLANTIS: Without Viagra, people can't love each other. With birth control...
(CROSSTALK)
DUPLANTIS: ... it causes a barrier, which destroys relations.
ABRAMS: Yes. Well...
DUPLANTIS: It's a different thing all together.

Ah, so now all birth control is bad, and Duplantis' concerns are not just physical ones but emotional and spiritual ones: birth control destroys relationships.

Either Duplantis was lying in his opening remarks when he claimed that safety was his only concern or his "concerns" dramatically expanded during the short time he was on national television.

Cancel the equivocation. He was lying, lying, lying.
_____________

*Note: While the transcripts do not specify any organization affiliation for Duplantis, a basic Google search shows him involved with several religious, abstinence education-only, and anti-abortion groups. He also is listed as a (past)president and current board member of Pharmacists for Life International (link). This is how the group describes itself:

Pharmacists For Life International welcomes pharmacists from all facets of our profession, pharmacy students, other organizations, non-pharmacists, and all who love life, to join us in our dedication and perseverance in promoting respect for the sanctity of all human life from the moment of fertilization to natural death.

Why, you'd almost think that nobody at any of the cable news shows knows how to google.

Update: Atrios points the way to this eye-opening post about the current president of Pharmacists for Life, Karen Brauer, at Riffle.

And I still wonder: why was Lloyd Duplantis allowed to appear on "The Abrams Report" labeled as a pharmacist with only safety concerns about contraceptives and not as a pharmacist with long-standing and publicly expressed opinions that the use of oral contraceptives is tantamount to abortion?