The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear an appeal from Washington state pharmacists who said they have religious objections to dispensing Plan B or other emergency contraceptives.
The justices’ order leaves in place rules first adopted in 2007 following reports that some women had been denied access to emergency contraceptives that are effective when taken within a few days of unprotected sex. Pharmacies must fill lawful prescriptions, but individual pharmacists with moral objections can refer patients to another pharmacist, as long as it’s at the same store.
Stormans Inc., the owners of Ralph’s Thriftway in Olympia, a grocery store that includes a pharmacy, sued, along with two pharmacists who said the rules required them to violate their religious beliefs.
Kristen Waggoner, the lead attorney for Stormans in the case, said Tuesday that since many pharmacists work alone, the inability to refer an emergency contraceptive prescription to another pharmacy — when other prescriptions can be referred — puts pharmacists in a position of violating their conscience.
“The state needs to not make a value judgment that a religiously-motivated referral is not permissible when other referrals are,” she said, saying that another lawsuit could ultimately occur if the state doesn’t enforce the rules “in an even-handed manner.”
Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson lauded the high court’s decision to not hear the case.
“Patients should know that when they need medication, they won’t be refused based on the personal views of a particular pharmacy owner,” Ferguson added. “The appeals court ruling upheld today protects that principle.”
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas said they would have heard the appeal.
Calling the court’s action an “ominous sign,” Alito wrote a stinging 15-page dissent for the three dissenting justices. “If this is a sign of how religious liberty claims will be treated in the years ahead, those who value religious freedom have cause for great concern,” he wrote.
A trial judge twice ruled for the pharmacists in the long-running lawsuit, but was twice overturned by the federal appeals court in San Francisco.
Sold as Plan B, emergency contraception is a high dose of the drug found in many regular birth-control pills. It can lower the risk of pregnancy by as much as 89 percent if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex.
Some critics consider the pill related to abortion, although it is different from the abortion pill RU-486 and has no effect on women who already are pregnant.
In 2006, the federal Food and Drug Administration made the morning-after pill available without prescription to adults.
The case is Stormans Inc. v. Wiesman, 15-862.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Individuals do not violate another’s religious rights by living their own religion. Even if they have no religious beliefs other then they don’t believe in religion or God. If someone can refuse to sell something to another because the person does not have enough money to purchase the item surely they can refuse to sell something because they don’t want to? What the court is saying is a person “must” sell a pill, or a house, or a car or whatever, otherwise they are violating the buyer’s religious “rights”. Why doesn’t that violate the religious rights of the seller? As normal it is the govt that is violating people’s religious rights. In fact it is the govt, actually the Constitution which is the law of the land, the rule of law, that has given us the right to practice religion. The church, the synagogue, etc. but not islam did not give anyone the right to practice religion, to vote, to assemble, to have free speech, etc. . It is the Constitution that gives us these rights, This whole mess of rights where rights do not even exist is nothing but a form of Jim Crow, of apartheid which made blacks give rights to whites and denied rights to blacks. Racial Jim Crow. What we now have is religious Jim Crow, religious apartheid. And the right to practice religion is not a govt license to do anything except practice religion. It does not give one the right to declare jihad against all who don’t believe and this list goes on and on. You can’t walk naked down the street just because your religion says you must do this to be a believer or to have a beard in prison, or a company has to hire you and can’t fire you because of your attire. What is wrong in DC is the people in positions of authority do not think the rule of law applies to them. Like this attitude has been implemented by this admin and reflects what is normal in islamic countries. There they have the rule of man, of men, of clerics not the rule of law.
The government has no business telling privately owned businesses what products they must carry. It sounds like three judges understand that basic point. The remaining five justices really need to be replaced by judges who will follow the Constitution.
The Christian pharmacists should order one dose of the drug, throw it away and then just fail to reorder more of the drug. When someone comes in to get that drug they can tell them that they are out of the drug at the moment.
Why do christians have to go against their religious beliefs?! I am sick to death of this bullshit! There are a bazillion pharmacies and bakeries in this country! All you nonbelievers need to f*** off and go find a pharmacy and bakery that will make you happy. Stop pushing your lifestyle on others. This government better step up and get sensible cuz the people are disgusted with your one side bullshit!
The pharmacists should conveniently not have the drug in stock.
When I think about these Christian pharmacists and any others who would be forced to violate their conscience; I immediately think of Reverand Doctor Martin Luther King.We must continue the good fight for our 1st Amendment Right of religious liberty. Amen.