Posted on 01/30/2006 9:33:23 AM PST by laney
CNSNews.com) - A pro-life group is filing lawsuits on behalf of four Illinois pharmacists who were fired from Walgreens for their opposition to filling prescriptions for the morning-after pill.
Americans United for Life (AUL) said the plaintiffs were asked to sign a paper agreeing to dispense the drug, which they believe can cause abortions in early pregnancies. When they refused to sign the paper, they were terminated. Those firings violated the Illinois Rights of Conscience Act, AUL claimed.
"Walgreens is trampling on the civil rights of employees who are protected from discrimination under Illinois law. These pharmacists were fired because they wouldn't sign away those rights," said Edward Martin, Jr., attorney with Americans United for Life in a statement
It's a disgrace that people who have served their company well to be fired because of their moral objection to dispensing an abortion drug," Martin said, noting the "sad irony" in filing the lawsuit "so close to the anniversary of Roe v. Wade."
"These lawsuits, and the firing of these four professionals, is the logical progression of Governor [Rod] Blagojevich's effort to force pharmacists to do as he wills. His attempts to coerce pharmacies into this kind of civil rights abuse are in contradiction with existing law and a gross overreach of the executive branch of government," added Martin.
The lawsuits were filed in Madison County, Ill., on behalf of Kelly Hubble, John Menges, Carol Muzzarelli, and Richard Quayle. The suits seek damages for the company "knowingly violating the law."
I hope they win but I'm skeptical of these pharmacists intentions. I think they just want money from the lawsuit.
They don't seem to have any problem dispensing birth control pill which does prevent the implantation of an already fertilization egg into the uterus just as the morning after pill does.
The morning after pill is just a large dose of birth control pills.
I find people who use birth control pills are disgusting and just as guilty as those who go into the cling to get an abortion. Ignorance isn't an excuse.
Uh, if I hire someone to do something, and they don't, I would fire them too. If you have a moral issue with part of your job, find a new career or a boss who agrees with you.
Agreed. Unless they signed a contract saying they could choose which lawful prescriptions to fill, these guys have a lot of nerve blaming their boss for firing them when they refuse to do their job.
And when and if they pass assisted suicide drugs as the law of the land, Freeper Join or Die - as a hypothetical pharmacist - would feel no moral strings pulling at his conscience when asked to dispense such drugs - right?
My point is that your black&white statement that moral judgement cannot enter one's thinking as an employee - is a tad myoptic, given the left's advances in tearing down the distance between right and wrong.
IMHO, pharmacists, like doctors of an era some say is past - are used to following an adage to do no harm.
"I find people who use birth control pills are disgusting and just as guilty as those who go into the cling to get an abortion. Ignorance isn't an excuse."
And yet I don't see you advocating the unrealistic position that birth control pills be banned. They won't be, which means that in some form or another, "Plan B" will be just as accessible.
I do advocate banning birth control pills. I think with proper education we may not be able to get a ban but people may personally choose not to use it in the future.
In seeking to coerce these pharmacists to do what you, not they, think is right, you are both forgetting an important element in the story:The Illinois Right of Conscience Act. That act gives health care personnel the right to refuse to deliver any health care services which are contrary to their consciences (or "sincerely held moral convictions"), unless there is a medical emergency. It would appear Walgreens, for whatever reason, is in violation of that law, and the pharmacists really ought prevail.
http://www.cathmsa.org/chicago/IL_Conscious_Com.html
Forget "may". You never will. I simply cannot understand why people who profess to be against abortion come up with these ideas for making abortion even more prevalent than it is. :) You are welcome not to use the pill; you cannot make that decision for other women.
I was unaware of that law, but if that's in place as stated that changes the picture greatly.
Life begins at conception, if you choose to kill a child, I will not just stand by and let it happen. There are many alternatives to birth control pills and abortion. Selfishness is not an excuse for murdering a child.
Most people think that pills are a good way to avoid abortion, not an equivalent, and I think that would be a tough sell. I'm not sure how you would prevent a woman from getting a prescription that a doctor has given her, or how you would know which women they are.
Most people I know who used birth control pills did not realize they could be killing their own child. If more people knew the truth about birth control pills the might choose other forms of birth control. They should have a warning in big print that birth control pills also worth after conception and may lead to an unwanted abortion.
There are so many choices in birth control these days that do not act after conception, there is no excuse for using the "pill" if you already know it act after conception.
"They should have a warning in big print that birth control pills also worth (sic) after conception"
There is a lot of information available on how the pill works (including in the package insert), and different kinds work different ways. I think a woman who does NOT want to be pregnant is not generally going to be all that fussy about how that gets accomplished (sorry to be blunt, but there it is).
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