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Pro-life pharmacy dispenses meds, not abortifacients
By Gina Keating, news@catholicsun.org
November 6, 2008
PRESCOTT VALLEY — Tired of checking his faith at the door, Pat McNerny has opened Arizona’s first pro-life pharmacy with the mission of building the culture of life, one prescription at a time.
Unlike chain drugstores he previously worked for, McNerny won’t stock the shelves of his Ave Maria Pharmacy in Prescott Valley with birth control pills or other medications or devices that might interfere with the transmission of life.
“We decided to draw the line and find out how to live our faith and support our family in a profession God called me to do: to help people with medications,” he said.
The pharmacy, located at 8098 E. Valley Road, off Arizona State Route 69 and N. Robert Road, is open Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
They are closed on holy days of obligation, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
After 30 years in the industry, this is McNerny’s first time at owning a small business. He and his wife, Belinda, opened their doors to the public in February.
The fledgling company is still building its patient base, but has several prescription mail service orders in Arizona and in Nebraska, where McNerny is also licensed.
He fills prescriptions that are mailed, faxed or phoned in to the pharmacy by the physician, with a two-day turnaround.
Walk-ins are also welcome, and once you’re through the doors there’s a distinct feeling you’ve entered a home.
A large portrait of Mary holding baby Jesus greets you on a wall adjacent to the counter, and the bureau below the artwork holds family photos and fresh flowers.
There isn’t a lot of inventory on the shelves because it’s kept at a warehouse; however, it is a full-service pharmacy sans the pornography and abortifacient drugs or devices.
“We’ll send them toothpaste and any other item found at a drug store,” McNerny said. “It’s helpful for people living out in rural areas and for the elderly.”
The process of opening the pharmacy was a leap that served as a journey of faith for the entire family.
In 2001, McNerny left at 11 p.m. for adoration at Sacred Heart Parish in Prescott. His wife and two children, who usually accompanied him, stayed behind because of an illness.
“It was the night our Lord said, ‘Why are you killing my children?’ I came home and told my wife I had to get out of my job,” McNerny said.
It was a decision that nearly tore their marriage in two. The couple had just built their dream home and they were financially secure.
McNerny moved the family to Nebraska where he took a lower paying job in IV care so he wouldn’t have to sell birth control pills.
The couple sought counsel through prayer, adoration and deeper reflection on the teachings on the Catholic Church.
Belinda believes the Lord began their conversion of heart a few years earlier. She had seen one of Mother Angelica’s programs on EWTN that explained how using some forms of birth control pills can actually cause an abortion early in pregnancy.
The program made Belinda question her own decision to take birth control pills for a medical condition.
She found alternatives and also began Natural Family Planning. John Paul was born four years ago.
McNerny gets emotional recalling their personal journey, and his new role in the pro-life movement.
What makes him so unique is that he is passionate, compassionate and gentle.
“I truly believe that birth control pills have not freed women, but enslaved women,” he said. “I’m not militant about it. We need to love women and, if we get a chance to, tell women that birth control pills are demeaning.”
In addition to offering custom compounding, online insurance billing and specialty medications, McNerny provides medication counseling.
“I never had time to do it before in retail pharmacy, where you filled 300 to 400 prescriptions a day,” he said. “I’m not here to make a fortune. I’m here to provide good care to our patients.”
McNerny said he worries that eventually laws to regulate pharmacies will force them to fill prescriptions that contradict Church teaching.
He said he feels safer owning his own pharmacy in the hope he would be exempt from such laws.
In the eight months since Ave Maria opened its doors, other pharmacists have stopped in to visit, and left their card in case there’s an opening.
“They come by to say they wish they were not forced to dispense birth control pills,” McNerny said.
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