An ACLU Rant

In perusing the ACLU’s press page today, I came across an article that began like this:

The New York Civil Liberties Union provided Duane Reade pharmacies a refresher course on state and federal privacy laws after a customer at a Brooklyn store was illegally instructed to record her personal information before she could purchase over-the-counter emergency contraception known as Plan B.

A little farther down, the article continues:

The woman, Dante Melville, had presented a valid driver’s license as proof of age, as required by Federal Drug Administration guidelines. Melville believed the clerk was violating her rights.

“I knew something was wrong. It felt instinctively wrong,” Melville said. “A light went off. This is crazy, I thought. I should be able to make my purchase in private.”

Following the incident, Melville sent an e-mail to the pharmacy chain complaining of her treatment, and notified reproductive rights groups of the incident.

(The complete article is at http://www.aclu.org/reproductiverights/contraception/33248prs20071203.html)

Is it just me, or is something a little whacked out here? Ms. Melville didn’t want to give her pharmacist her name—because that is private. But it’s okay to tell the entire nation? Isn’t she herself voiding the “purchase in private” statement?

Sounds a little fishy… Someone who is embarrassed at telling her pharmacist that she is obtaining Plan B should obviously be embarrassed at informing the entire nation. Sounds like a plant to me.