Free Republic

Live in Washington State? In a crisis? Suicidal? Call 911. Then what? A dispatcher sends crisis negotiators who, if they follow the suggestions provided at a recent negotiators' training session, could help you consider "all options." If you're eligible, you may be referred to friendly volunteers who will help you find a doctor willing to prescribe a deadly drug overdose. Just take the prescription to a pharmacy. Have it filled by a pharmacist who hands it to you with instructions to "take this with a light snack and alcohol to cause death." But what if the pharmacy has opted out...

Hackers last week broke into a Virginia state Web site used by pharmacists to track prescription drug abuse. They deleted records on more than 8 million patients and replaced the site's homepage with a ransom note demanding $10 million for the return of the records, according to a posting on Wikileaks.org, an online clearinghouse for leaked documents. Wikileaks reports that the Web site for the Virginia Prescription Monitoring Program was defaced last week with a message claiming that the database of prescriptions had been bundled into an encrypted, password-protected file.

Illinois pharmacists who object to dispensing emergency contraception won another day in court to fight a rule they claim forces them to choose between their livelihood and conscience. The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday said the circuit court must consider a lawsuit brought by two pharmacists who claim they should not be required to dispense emergency contraception because it violates their religious beliefs. Lower courts had dismissed those claims and refused to hear the case. Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2005 issued a rule prohibiting pharmacies from turning away women seeking emergency contraception, sometimes called the morning-after pill.

A pair of married contract pharmacists at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga persuaded their boss that they should be paid for working 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- and the boss agreed, according to court testimony Monday during the couple's preliminary hearing.

City: Sacramento, CA Two closely-watched cases involving the conscientious rights of doctors and pharmacists have been scheduled for argument within the next few weeks. Pacific Justice Institute filed an amicus brief last week with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Stormans, Inc. v. Selecky, where pharmacists are seeking protection from a Washington law requiring them to dispense the "Plan B" abortifacient drug. A lower federal court ruled in favor of the pharmacists, allowing them to refer patients to other pharmacists who do not have moral objections to selling the drugs. The court cited a lack of...

Federal Appeals Court Okays Injunction Protecting Pro-Life Pharmacists Los Angeles, CA -- A federal appeals court has upheld an injunction in a lower court ruling that halted a new state requirement forcing pharmacists to fill prescriptions for all drugs. The mandate included drugs that would violate their moral or religious beliefs of pharmacists who don't want to be involved in abortions. Washington state pharmacists who are pro-life were worried they could be forced to dispense the morning after pill or birth control drugs.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI said Monday that pharmacists have a right to use conscientious objection to avoid dispensing emergency contraception or euthanasia drugs — and told them they should also inform patients of the ethical implications of using such drugs.Benedict told a gathering of Catholic pharmacists that conscientious objection was a right that must be recognized by the pharmaceutical profession."Pharmacists must seek to raise people's awareness so that all human beings are protected from conception to natural death, and so that medicines truly play a therapeutic role," Benedict said.Benedict said conscientious objector status would "enable them not...

Muslim medical students get picky   Daniel Foggo and Abul Taher   Some Muslim medical students are refusing to attend lectures or answer exam questions on alcohol-related or sexually transmitted diseases because they claim it offends their religious beliefs. Some trainee doctors say learning to treat the diseases conflicts with their faith, which states that Muslims should not drink alcohol and rejects sexual promiscuity. A small number of Muslim medical students have even refused to treat patients of the opposite sex. One male student was prepared to fail his final exams rather than carry out a basic examination of...

Explicitly prohibits not filling prescription "due to sincerely held moral, philosophical or religious beliefs” By John Jalsevac TRENTON, N.J., June 12, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A bill passed yesterday by the New Jersey legislature requires pharmacists to fill all prescriptions, even if doing so violates the religious or personal beliefs of the pharmacist. The bill passed with a vote of 56-18. Currently it only awaits the signature of Gov. Jon Corzine in order to become law, as it was already passed by the Senate last June.The official text of the bill reads: “A pharmacy practice site has a duty to properly...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Abortion advocates in Congress have introduced new legislation that would force pharmacists across the country to dispense birth control and the morning after pill, which can cause an abortion in some instances. Under the bill, pharmacists who decline to dispense such drugs could be required to pay as much as $500,000 in fines. Sen. Frank Lautenberg and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, both pro-abortion Democrats, are the key sponsors of the House and Senate versions of the bill, called the Access to Birth Control (ABC) Act. Pharmacists have "an obligation to serve women, provide them with access to...

The Governor has signed legislation targeting one side of the political debate, but not and the other and a bill that is designed to publicly shame pharmacists that are pro-life. The Governor will never win any awards for protecting innocent Human Life. Everyone knew that he was with the exception of possibly parental notification zealously pro-abortion. His COS Susan Kennedy was the chief political operative for the California Abortion Lobby. In his kowtowing to the extreme pro-abortion agenda of the Democrats in the legislature he has signed three bills under the banner of benefiting "women's health" that really target political...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Food and Drug Administration may have approved sales of the morning after pill over the counter, but some pharmacists are reluctant to sell the drug. The agency's move to sell Plan B without a prescription may expand the nationwide debate about a conscience clause for pharmacists to allow them to opt out of dispensing the drug. In Washington state, Jim Ramseth, the owner of Covington Pharmacy, doesn't want to sell the morning after pill because he believes it can work as an abortion drug. Ramseth says he and many of his colleagues believe the drug...

Druggists seeking power to prescribe Plan allows pharmacist to act without doctor's consent   Carly Weeks CanWest News Service Tuesday, July 11, 2006   OTTAWA - Many Canadians may soon have to travel no further than their neighbourhood pharmacy to treat what ails them and critics are up in arms over changes they say will turn pharmacists into pill-pushing entrepreneurs intent on over-medicating the population.A growing number of Canadian pharmacists want the power to prescribe drugs without a doctor's consent. The controversy erupted recently when Alberta declared it was moving forward with a plan to let pharmacists independently prescribe...

SB 123 Receives Hearing Wednesday, March 22, 2006 The Conscience Clause for Pharmacists (SB 123), cleared the Senate earlier this session and will have a hearing in a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Non-Civil chaired by Rep. Tom Knox on Wednesday afternoon. Authored by Senator Jim Whitehead, this legislation would protect pharmacists who refuse to dispense medication that terminates a pregnancy. The Code of Ethics already allows pharmacists to refuse, for any reason, to dispense medication. For that reason, Georgia Right to Life did not initially take a position on this issue.

PROTECT YOUR RIGHT TO CHOOSE COMPOUNDED BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONE MEDICATIONS THE FACTS: Recently, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, maker of Premarin & Prempro, (drugs derived from Pregnant Mares Urine – yes, horses pee) filed a Citizen’s Petition with the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) asking the FDA to impose harmful restrictions on the compounding and dispensing of Bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT). (Bio-identical hormones are manufactured to have the same molecular structure as the hormones made by your own body.) This petition would eliminate the availability of compounded bio-identical hormones, which are prescribed by healthcare providers and prepared by pharmacists, to meet the unique...

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) announced today that legal action is underway in defense of two pharmacists who were fired for refusing to hand out abortifacient drugs. “These Conscience Clause cases are significant and represent the cutting edge of the abortion debate in our country right now;” ACLJ said in a statement to the press. “Doctors, nurses and pharmacists should not be compelled to violate their conscience and participate in an abortion procedure. We have already had success in a number of cases around the country, and we are confident that we will succeed in Illinois as...

Saint Louis -- Walgreen Co. engaged in religious discrimination by "effectively firing" three Illinois pharmacists who refused to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception, a public-interest group alleged Wednesday. The American Center for Law and Justice, founded by evangelist Pat Robertson, said it had filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The group said the pharmacists were put on unpaid leave Nov. 28 because the drug store chain said they violated a state rule mandating that such prescriptions be filled. "Since the pharmacists believe that human life begins at conception, they conclude that dispensing such drugs would require them...

WASHINGTON (BP)--Four Illinois pharmacists have found out there is a price to pay for exercising their pro-life convictions. The Walgreen Co. placed four of its pharmacists on indefinite, unpaid leave Nov. 28, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. The four, all working at Walgreen stores in the Illinois suburbs east of St. Louis, had declined to abide by a state rule that requires pharmacists to fill prescriptions for contraceptives, including the “morning-after” pill, even if it violates their consciences. Many people with pro-life views consider the “morning-after” pill, also known as emergency contraception, to be an abortifacient because it not only...

(AP) Walgreen Co., the nation's largest drugstore chain by revenue, said it has put four Illinois pharmacists in the St. Louis area on unpaid leave for refusing to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception in violation of a state rule. The four cited religious or moral objections to filling prescriptions for the morning-after pill and "have said they would like to maintain their right to refuse to dispense, and in Illinois that is not an option," Walgreen spokeswoman Tiffani Bruce said. A rule imposed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich in April requires Illinois pharmacies that sell contraceptives approved by the U.S. Food and...

(KSDK) — Walgreens put four Illinois pharmacists on unpaid leave Monday for refusing to fill prescriptions for the "morning after pill." The pharmacists say they're standing up for their beliefs. Walgreens says they're violating state law. The "morning after pill" is also called Plan B. It is often prescribed to prevent or terminate pregnancy. But pharmacist John Menges says it is the one prescription he won't fill, "I can advise people what pharmacies to go to. I mean, I can help them in every way. But I can't actually fill them because of my religious belief." For this reason, Walgreens...

I received a call this week from a worried pharmacist. I live in a state where pharmacists are required by law to dispense the morning-after pill, even if they have a moral objection. MAPs are megadoses of the same hormones in birth-control pills and may cause abortions by stopping an embryo from implanting in the wall of the uterus, the reason for the moral objection. This pharmacist was a sole-supporting mother of two. She said she had managed to avoid being forced to choose between her conscience and her job until the day she called me. That day, she was...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Target Corp. is defending its policy on filling prescriptions for emergency contraception after the Planned Parenthood Federation of America accused the retailer of disrespecting customers' reproductive rights. Target allows pharmacists to choose not to fill requests for emergency contraception, also known as Plan B, if it is against their religious beliefs. The issue has caused an ongoing debate nationwide between people who oppose abortion because of religious beliefs and those in favor of abortion rights. Emergency contraception primarily delays ovulation long enough for sperm to die without fertilizing an egg. Those who oppose the drug say it...

HOUSTON -- Houston has become known nationally as the "City of Syrup" because the abuse of codeine-fortified cough syrup among the city's youth is so widespread, a local researcher says. The reputation is reflected in a trial that begins Tuesday of six pharmacists charged with illegally dispensing the highly addictive prescription cough syrup codeine with promethazine.

CHICAGO — Soft-spoken but definitively authoritative Bishop Thomas Paprocki concluded Mass in honor of the late Pope John Paul II and looked over the congregation at St. Hyacinth Basilica. The church was filled — not only with worshipers but with dignitaries, including Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Serbian Orthodox member, who came to publicly attest to the Pontiff. (Blagojevich did so, even though as a state representative, congressman, and governor he had undeviatingly supported pro-abortion legislation.) Indeed, recently the governor had issued an executive order regarding pro-life pharmacists who think they are covered by a “conscience clause” which allows them to...

ACLJ Files Lawsuit Against Illinois Governor Charging Order Requiring Pharmacists to Dispense Medication that Violates Religious Beliefs is Unenforceable http://www.aclj.org/news/Read.aspx?ID=1475 April 13, 2005 (Springfield, IL) – The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which specializes in constitutional law, today filed a lawsuit in state court in Illinois on behalf of two pharmacists challenging Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s emergency amendment to the state code requiring pharmacists to dispense medication even if filling the prescriptions violate their conscience and religious beliefs. The ACLJ lawsuit charges that the Governor’s order is unenforceable and urges the court to declare it null and void...

Some times we have to be our brethren's keepers Gene Lyons, of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette wrote in March 30 a vicious op-ed attacking pro-life stances taken by culture-of-life-supporting politicians during the Terri Schiavo drama, against pro-life pharmacists who refuse to dispense contraceptives and abortifacients, and against people of faith in general, calling them--calling us-- "moral exhibitionists". The first part of his diatribe repeated the standard mainstream media (MSM) line that Terri was "brain-dead" and that therefore, that it was legal, licit, and morally irreprehensible to starve her to death. He made no effort at investigating the facts, engaged in non-sequiturs...

Because of beliefs, some refuse to fill birth control prescriptions Some pharmacists across the country are refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control and morning-after pills, saying that dispensing the medications violates their personal moral or religious beliefs. . The trend has opened a new front in the nation's battle over reproductive rights, sparking an intense debate over the competing rights of pharmacists to refuse to participate in something they consider repugnant and a woman's right to get medications her doctor has prescribed. It has also triggered pitched political battles in statehouses across the nation as politicians seek to pass...

NEW YORK (AP) -- In Congress and states nationwide, anti-abortion activists are broadening efforts to support hospitals, doctors and pharmacists who -- citing moral grounds -- want to opt out of services linked to abortion and emergency contraception. A little-noticed provision cleared the House of Representatives last week that would prohibit local, state or federal authorities from requiring any institution or health care professional to provide abortions, pay for them, or make abortion-related referrals, even in cases of rape or medical emergency.

A poster in my office reads, "77% of anti-abortion leaders are men. 100% of them will never be pregnant." This could have been the caption for the now (in)famous photo of George W. Bush signing the nation's first abortion procedure ban, surrounded by the men who have wielded their political power to restrict access to family planning, emergency contraception and sexual health education — proven means of preventing unintended pregnancy. But last Monday, the picture in Maine was different. On national Back Up Your Birth Control Day, Gov. John Baldacci held a signing ceremony for a new law that will...

Pharmacists in Australia opposed to selling the "morning-after pill" without a prescription are refusing to do so -- and some say they will also refuse to follow a requirement to refer the customers to other suppliers. Manufacturers of the morning-after pill -- formally known as the "emergency contraceptive pill" -- say it has a 95 percent success rate in preventing pregnancy if taken within 24 hours of sexual intercourse, and slightly less so if taken within 72 hours. Although many health bodies have declared it safe, some medical practitioners are concerned about potential health risks, while pro-lifers say it acts...