Posted on 07/09/2009 10:06:57 PM PDT by stevelackner
The L.A. Times reports that "pharmacists are obliged to dispense the Plan B pill, even if they are personally opposed to the 'morning after' contraceptive on religious grounds, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. In a case that could affect policy across the western U.S., a supermarket pharmacy owner in Olympia, Wash., failed in a bid to block 2007 regulations that required all Washington pharmacies to stock and dispense the pills. Family-owned Ralph's Thriftway and two pharmacists employed elsewhere sued Washington state officials over the requirement. The plaintiffs asserted that their Christian beliefs prevented them from dispensing the pills, which can prevent implantation of a recently fertilized egg. They said that the new regulations would force them to choose between keeping their jobs and heeding their religious objections to a medication they regard as a form of abortion. Ralph's owners, Stormans Inc., and pharmacists Rhonda Mesler and Margo Thelen sought protection under the First Amendment right to free exercise of religion and won a temporary injunction from the U.S. District Court in Seattle pending trial on the constitutionality of the regulations. That order prevented state officials from penalizing pharmacists who refused to dispense Plan B as long as they referred consumers to a nearby pharmacy where it was available. On Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the injunction. Other constitutional challenges are pending with the district court, which had been waiting for the 9th Circuit ruling on the injunction, said Chad Allred, a Seattle lawyer whose firm represents Stormans and the pharmacists. In anticipation of the injunction being vacated, Stormans and the two pharmacists secured an agreement with the state that it would not pursue sanctions against them until the other issues were decided at trial, Allred said."
The 9th Circuit held that Washington's Pharmacy Board rules are neutral regulations of general applicability that need only meet a rational basis test rather than the strict scrutiny standard used by the district court. But within the very opinion itself the judges seem to contradict themselves on this very point.
The Ninth Circuit stated that the new pharmacy rules are nuetral because they "do not aim to suppress, target, or single out in any way the practice of any religion because of its religious content." They said that they are generally applicable because there was "no evidence" that the State "pursued their interests only against conduct with a religious motivation. Under the rules, all pharmacies have a 'duty to deliver' all medications 'in a timely manner'" and the challenged regulations in the case do not apply "to refusals only for religious reasons." Yet the opinion also included the following not long thereafter: "How much the new rules actually increase access to medications depends on how many people are able to get medication that they might previously have been denied based on religious or general moral opposition by a pharmacist or pharmacy to the given medication." In other words, the entire success of the law they declare "nuetral" and "generally applicable" will be determined by its effect on religious people.
The Ninth Circuit itself quotes Supreme Court precedent to support the idea that the district court should not have looked to legislative history to determine whether a law is nuetral. The Ninth Circuit writes that "Justice Scalia, the author of the Smith opinion," one of the main cases the Ninth Circuit relies upon, "explained that the Free Exercise Clause 'does not refer to the purposes for which legislators enact laws, but to the effects of the laws enacted.'” How does that then square with the apellate court's own declaration that the increase in the avaliability of medication "depends on how many people are able to get medication that they might previously have been denied based on religious or general moral opposition by a pharmacist or pharmacy to the given medication"?
Businesses, including pharmacies, should be able to sell what they wish without government intervention forcing them to sell a product they find morally repulsive. When the government forces a religious person in a specific business to sell a specific product, in violation of his legitimate and deeply held religious and moral convictions, then common sense dictates that there may in fact be a serious conflict with the First Amendment's ban on government laws that "prohibit the free exercise" of religion.
I agree with you. The question is, where does that moral obligation end. What exactly are the parameters. At what point are you completely free of the association.
The injuction allowed them to refrain from dispensing it as long as they referred consumers to a nearby pharmacy where it was available. Wouldn't that be like the person in your analogy who doesn't want to turn the valve, yet gives directions to his replacement on where he can find the chambers. Go down here and take a left, third building on the right. That's where the murders will take palce place. Tell 'em Hans sent you.
Are they really free of any moral association, or do they just think they are.....
5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
Ambassador (Noun)
1·· a diplomat of the highest rank; accredited as representative from one country to another.
That answers my question. Thanks for the response.
How does the Ninth Circuit Court feel about compelling Muslim Grocers to carry pork products and alcoholic beverages?
They won't force Muslim grocers to do any such thing.
If you're expecting logic and consistency from these bastards, you're going to be sadly disappointed.
How many surgeons are Jehovah's Witnesses?
That's the lamest "Straw Man" attack I've ever seen! I don't really see a Jehovah's Witness getting into that line of work. Do you?
I assume if a surgeon converts to that faith they would most likely change occupations.
How about, what if a brew meister is a Muslim and refuses to make beer?
Better yet, what if a prostitute is a Born Again Christian and refuses to have sex with someone who is not their husband?
Hey, what if a frog had wings? It wouldn't have to bump its butt on the ground when crossing the road!
Doctors do not get to dictate what a pharmacy can & will fill (which is none of the DOCTOR'S BUSINESS). That's why there are more than a couple of pharmacies in any one given area. You are perfectly welcome to choose a pharmacy that will sell what you dare to prescribe. There is also a patient-pharmacist relationship, in case you didn't know. We also service murderers, perverts, etc. We provide medication to prisons, jails, nursing homes, halfway houses, etc.
You may think you are a GOD but I beg to differ. So, a doctor is ALLOWED to choose what is morally objectionable to him/her but a pharmacist is not? Got it, DOC!
Thank God we work with doctors who don't have your attitude. They actually ask for advice & guidance when it comes to patients and vice versa. It's nice to have a working relationship with a doctor instead of a know-it-all attitude like yours. Sometimes we even protect the doctor's butt when patients go doctor shopping and the doctors protect ours when the patient goes pharmacy shopping. See how that works. But, you just keep thinking the pharmacy is at your beckon call and they have no business telling you anything. We prefer to work with the doctor & patient not against them.
I am perfectly aware of what a pharmacist does since we have owned a pharamcy for longer than you have been alive.
Nope; it was the correct ruling (just like in the cases where Minneapolis Muslim cab drivers were told to find some other job if they didn’t want to carry people with alcohol or dogs).
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