Gov. Walker looks to instill a similar law in budget plan
An Illinois circuit court judge ruled last week that pharmacies in the state can refuse to sell emergency contraception for moral reasons.
Emergency contraception, which is often referred to as the morning after pill, is like prescribed birth control, except it contains a higher dose of hormones and is taken after unprotected sex or birth control failure to prevent pregnancy.
Two Illinois pharmacists, Glenn Kosirog and Luke VanderBleek, sued for the right to not sell the drugs six years ago, fighting against a 2005 rule created by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, which forced pharmacies to provide the pills without moral judgment, according to a report from USAToday.com.
Sangamon County Circuit Judge John Belz ruled in favor of two pharmacists, stating that forcing pharmacists to sell emergency contraceptives was against the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience — a state law which says individuals do not have to provide healthcare services that violate their beliefs.
In his arguments before the court, Kosirog compared the pill to abortion.
“It is a pill that ends life,” Kosirog told NBC Chicago. “And I can count on both hands other pharmacies in our area where they could get it.”
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker recently proposed in his 2011-’13 state budget to eliminate family planning funding, revoking the current mandate that public and private health insurers include contraceptives in their coverage.
Matt Sande, director of legislation for Pro-Life Wisconsin, said his organization applauded the ruling of the circuit court for upholding the religious freedoms of pharmacists.
Currently, Pro-Life Wisconsin is working on drafting legislation similar to the Illinois’ Health Care Right of Conscience, Sande said.
He said the bill would be a comprehensive approach that would protect individuals in the health care field and health care institutions from employment discrimination, among other things.
In addition to the issues that surround emergency contraception, problems have also arisen over prescribed birth control.
Nicole Safar, the Legal and Policy Analyst for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin, said in an e-mail that Wisconsin law currently requires every pharmacy to have someone available to dispense birth control prescription.
She said this is a much-needed law, considering the number of pharmacies on the National Women’s Law Center in Wisconsin’s list that refuse to dispense forms birth control.
More than 95 percent of women have used birth control at some point in their lives, she said.
“Women must be able to get their legal birth control prescriptions at the pharmacy counter, particularly time-sensitive medications like emergency birth control,” she said. “We should absolutely not expect a woman to travel from pharmacy to pharmacy, looking for a person to dispense her valid birth control prescription.”
John McAdams, an associate professor of political science, said this was an example of “the fascist intolerance of liberals.”
“A tolerant person would say you have a right to sell or not sell emergency contraceptive,” he said. “Forcing people to believe what you believe is simply intolerant.
It is bad public policy to force people to violate their conscience,” he said. “The government cannot force people to do things.”