The 9th Circuit rules against "conscience" refusal to dispense the "morning after pill"

[cali]

Plan B ruling overturned at Circuit Court
Legal: Olympia pharmacy objects to dispensation law

Published: 07/09/09 12:05 am

A federal judge overreached when he sided with religious-freedom arguments to block Washington state’s rules mandating the sale of “morning-after” birth control, appeals judges said Wednesday.

The unanimous ruling, from a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sends the politically thorny case back to U.S. District Court for further review.

The case revolves around the drug Plan B, a contraceptive that can greatly reduce the chances of pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex.

Some pharmacists and drugstore owners, however, say they can’t sell the pills in good conscience because they consider Plan B’s effect on potential pregnancies too similar to abortion.

Kevin Stormans, an owner of Ralph’s Thriftway, is a party to the federal lawsuit challenging the Pharmacy Board rule. He said lawyers are reviewing the court decision but he does not expect it to affect his immediate operations.

“We’ve not had enough time to evaluate this decision. The attorneys need to evaluate and see ... how it changes things,’’ Stormans said. He understood that the state would not enforce its dispensation rule pending a trial on his legal challenge of it.

Ralph’s pharmacy continues to refuse to stock Plan B, the morning-after pill, on moral grounds, Stormans added.

But Donn Moyer, spokesman for the state Department of Health, said the agency believes the ruling means the state can enforce the Pharmacy Board rule that required the dispensation of legal medications, including Plan B, for any pharmacy.

<snip>

http://www.thenewstribune.com/health/story/805171.html

[ejpoeta]

1. I sure love people being able to force their 'morals' on everyone else.

Imagine if a vegetarian worked at a butcher shop and refused to sell meat. How about a jehovah's witness working at a hospital and refusing to give transfusions. If you don't believe in smething.... don't friggin use it yourself, but don't try to push it on everyone else. Can I refuse to pay taxes because I am morally opposed to war??? How far would that get me!!

[LARED]

4. I sure hate the government forcing itself into the private

affairs of Kevin Stormans, the owner of Ralph’s Thriftway.

How would you like it if you owned a Vegan store and the government told you you must sell meat?

[ruggerson]

24. then he should get out of the fucking healthcare business

and do something where he's not affecting people's physical well being.

[Deja Q]

9. Then somebody should have given the pill to your mother.

BTW: This is NOT a personal insult, but an attempt at coercive empathy. It's too easy to make claims. Like Michael Moore once said about conservatives, once you make them think about it on their level, then they start to think too.

That fetus won't get to be able to become and live as a human being.

I am ultimately pro-choice, but the callous disregard of human life annoys me.

But, like Levi Brisolbanger said, it's just not realistic...

[ejpoeta]

20. that's pretty funny considering that my mother chose to have my younger sister

and ultimately got sick and died. but hey, you weren't trying to be insulting or anything. i don't have a disregard for life. i am well aware of its value. i buried my mother at the age of 12. and i understand the choice she made by having my sister. at least she had the damned choice. not had it made by someone else for her.

[davidpdx]

2. I wonder what the chances of this ending up before the Supreme Court are

It seems like it might be pushed that far.

[cali]

3. I think it will end up in front of the SC

and I dread the prospect of a 5-4 decision reversing the 9th circuit.

[charlie]

6. Par for the course

The USSC luuurves reversing the 9th. In fact, reversing the 9th should be taught in schools as part of the Supreme Court's official duties.

[davidpdx]

13. I think that's what people are worried about

[get the red out]

5. I wish we had a real Supreme Court

The idea that we have let this slide toward theocracy go so far as to allow medical professionals decide what legal treatments they will and won't give according to their religion is terrifying.

[cali]

7. I wish that too. And I fervently wish that Scalia would step down.

[get the red out]

15. He's a nightmare!

That man makes me shudder! These conservatives don't get old, they just petrify and sit there trying to wreck the laws of our country to limit human rights as much as possible.

[zbdent]

8. let's use the Repukes' arguments against them ...

if the pharmacist doesn't like that part of his/her job, he/she can quit, and someone who WANTS TO WORK will do the job ...

[brendan120678]

10. But the pharmacist OWNS the pharmacy...

In the case of Kevin Stormans, an owner of Ralph’s Thriftway, it's his pharmacy.
What right does the government have to tell him what drugs he must stock?

[Hepburn]

11. Because it says the drugs are legal and doctors have a right to RX them and...

...patients have a right to get the RX filled.

What the hell right does a pharmacist have overruling an MD's RX solely on MORAL grounds?

It would be one thing if the pharmacist had a good faith belief of the danger of some med, but to say it offends Jay-zeus? Bullshit.

It is a matter of privacy ~~ just like abortion ~~ and it is at this point in time a PRIVATE decision between doctor and patient.

If the pharmacist does NOT like the law ~~ he can try to change it. However, due to the health of the patient, IMO, he cannot rufuse to follow it. For all the RR pharmacist knows, a pregnancy might be fatal to the patient for the RX was given.

JMHO

[zbdent]

12. okay ... say I'm a pharmacist/owner in Kalifornia ... I want to stock ...

medical marijuana ...

Same people who would be backing the owner in this fight are more than happy to have the government tell me I can't stock that ...

[brendan120678]

17. Probably true...but I am certainly not one of them.

[LynneSin]

18. Even moreso - you give other people in the medical field the right to make decisions..

based on what they believe is 'moral' and not on what is medically the right thing to do. Do we want doctors in the ER picking who they save first simply because on person looks to be a better person than the other? The point is valid that this pharmacist owns his own store and has the right to stock his own inventory but this ruling creates a very slipperly slope in the medical field that should never ever be crossed.

[havocmom]

19. Being publically licensed by the state should carry some public responsibilities

for starters.

[Lars39]

23. Doesn't matter if he owns it or not, he holds the state issued license

to fill legal prescriptions.

[olegramps]

14. Gee, do you mean that we have to serve those Black, ugh, People too.

[brendan120678]

16. That's totally different and you know it.

The pharmacy isn't refusing to serve anyone. They are refusing to carry a product.

[Johonny]

21. It's seems to me a perfectly the logical extension

People use their religion excuse to dislike black people, gays, women, the mentally handicap... Yes I have a friend that's doctor refuse to give their child the hepatitis vaccine because he thought it would lead to their child living a sinful life style. Oh yes it is a perfectly logical extension. People use religion as a crutch for all kinds of ideas.

[Lars39]

22. Nope.

There's been cases of the pharmacy having the medicine on the premises and pharmacists refusing to fill the prescription.