Court: Pharmacists must sell "morning after" pill

By GottaLaff

Thank you:

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. [...]

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. [...]

On Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the injunction, saying the district court was wrong in issuing it based on an erroneous finding that the rules violated the free exercise of religion clause of the U.S. Constitution. [...]

Although the courts have yet to pronounce judgment on other aspects of the lawsuit, the unanimous ruling on the free-exercise clause could portend further judgments, as the case moves forward, that a patient's right to timely medication supersedes a pharmacist's personal convictions. [...]

The right to freely exercise one's religion "does not relieve an individual of the obligation to comply with a valid and neutral law of general applicability," the 9th Circuit panel wrote.

"Any refusal to dispense -- regardless of whether it is motivated by religion, morals, conscience, ethics, discriminatory prejudices, or personal distaste for a patient -- violates the rules," the panel said.

Amen.

First UK Ad For The Morning After Pill

The comments at the YouTube link are interesting. Wonder how long before we start seeing these on Oxygen?

FDA to approve 'morning after' birth control pill for 17-year-olds

Oh course, that which makes the most sense will cause the most noise from the wingers.

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration, reversing field, will allow 17-year-olds get the 'morning-after' birth control pill without a doctor's prescription, a government health official said today.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the agency will comply with a federal judge's order overturning a Bush administration policy that restricted access. The official was not authorized to speak publicly before the FDA announcement, expected later today.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Edward Korman ruled in a New York lawsuit that Bush administration appointees let politics, not science, drive their decision to allow over-the-counter access to the pills only for women 18 and older. Korman ordered the agency to let 17-year-olds get the medication, and separately to evaluate whether all age restrictions should be lifted.