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New Jersey Forces Pharmacists to Dispense Abortifacient Drugs Regardless of Conscience
LifeSite ^ | November 5, 2007 | Hilary White

Posted on 11/06/2007 6:45:43 AM PST by NYer

TRENTON, New Jersey, November 5, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The state of New Jersey has passed a law denying the conscientious objection right of pharmacists, won in other states through lengthy court battles, to refrain from dispensing abortifacient and contraceptive drugs.
 
“Discussions of morals and matters of conscience are admirable, but should not come into play when subjective beliefs conflict with objective medical decisions,” said state Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, a bill sponsor.
 
The decision comes just days after Pope Benedict XVI gave his support to pharmacists worldwide who reject the culture of death in their profession. “Pharmacists must seek to raise people's awareness so that all human beings are protected from conception to natural death, and so that medicines truly play a therapeutic role,” the pope said on Monday.
 
He called the right of conscientious objection, “a right that must be recognized for people exercising this profession, so as to enable them not to collaborate directly or indirectly in supplying products that have clearly immoral purposes such as, for example, abortion or euthanasia.”
 
The New Jersey law was passed in the context of numerous battles in courts and legislatures between pro-abortion governors and pharmacists fighting for conscience rights currently raging across the US.
 
Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich was forced by courts to back down on a law similar to that passed last week in New Jersey. The order attempted to force pharmacists in Illinois to dispense death-dealing drugs, was recently obliged by the courts to back down. The decision followed a long-running dispute between four pharmacist employees of Walgreens stores who were fired when they refused to dispense abortifacient drugs.
 
The American Center for Law and Justice, a public interest law firm, sued Walgreens on behalf of their former employees, saying the company had violated the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act, which makes it illegal for any employer “to discriminate against any person in any manner ... because of such person’s conscientious refusal ... to participate in any way in any form of health care services contrary to his or her conscience.”
 
In 2005, Janet Napolitano, Arizona’s aggressively pro-abortion governor vetoed legislation that attempted to recognise the rights of conscience of pharmacists. Napolitano said, “Pharmacies and other health care service providers have no right to interfere in the lawful personal medical decisions made by patients and their doctors.”
 
In Wisconsin, when pharmacist Neil Noesen refused in 2002 to dispense oral contraceptives he was reprimanded and fined by his pharmacy board and limits were set on his license to practice as a pharmacist.
 
Currently Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi and South Dakota have laws protecting the rights of pharmacists to refuse to dispense drugs according to their conscience and Florida, Illinois, Maine and Tennessee have some legislation that could be so applied.
 
New Jersey joins California where pharmacists must fill all prescriptions and may only refuse with the approval of their employer and ensure that the customer can get the drugs elsewhere. In Washington state pharmacists are challenging a similar law.
 
US Pharmacists Battle over Forced Dispensation of Abortion Drugs
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/apr/05041504.html
 
Illinois Court Rules Pharmacists May Reject Plan B
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/aug/07080308.html


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; Philosophy; US: New Jersey
KEYWORDS: abortaficacient; drug; pharmacy
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1 posted on 11/06/2007 6:45:44 AM PST by NYer
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To: Salvation; narses; SMEDLEYBUTLER; redhead; Notwithstanding; nickcarraway; Romulus; ...
Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list


2 posted on 11/06/2007 6:46:06 AM PST by NYer ("Where the bishop is present, there is the Catholic Church" - Ignatius of Antioch)
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To: NYer
The Left denies there is such a thing as freedom of conscience.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

3 posted on 11/06/2007 6:47:32 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: NYer
“Discussions of morals and matters of conscience are admirable, but should not come into play when subjective beliefs conflict with objective medical decisions,” said state Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, a bill sponsor.

Dante places traitors to God in the ninth, lowest, circle of Hell.

4 posted on 11/06/2007 6:52:13 AM PST by wideawake (Why is it that so many self-proclaimed "Constitutionalists" know so little about the Constitution?)
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To: goldstategop

The Left denies that unless it suits their purposes, NJ is sliding toward hopelessness, there is not much left there really.


5 posted on 11/06/2007 6:52:18 AM PST by padre35 (Conservative in Exile/ No more miller brewing products, pass it on/Isaiah 3.3)
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To: NYer

Another possible, just as accurate, wording for the headline could have been:
“New Jersey Ensures Pharmacy Customers Can Recieve Legal Perscription Drugs From Any Licensed Pharmacy”


6 posted on 11/06/2007 6:54:38 AM PST by BritExPatInFla
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To: BritExPatInFla
Baloney.

Any law that forces people to engage in commerce against their will is a farce.

The state of New Jersey may as well pass legislation forcing Toyota dealers to sell Fords.

7 posted on 11/06/2007 6:58:10 AM PST by Alberta's Child (I'm out on the outskirts of nowhere . . . with ghosts on my trail, chasing me there.)
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To: Alberta's Child

“Baloney.
Any law that forces people to engage in commerce against their will is a farce.

The state of New Jersey may as well pass legislation forcing Toyota dealers to sell Fords.”


If that Toyota dealer is also a Ford franchisee, then their salespeople wouldn’t have a choice, either. These “Abortifacients” are legal, made so under a GOP president and congress, if you want them blocked, those are the people to talk to. Otherwise, any pharmacy that sells them can damn well ensure their employees don’t block access to them when a customer with a legal perscription shows up to have it filled.


8 posted on 11/06/2007 7:03:30 AM PST by BritExPatInFla
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To: NYer

PHARMED AND DANGEROUS............


9 posted on 11/06/2007 7:03:52 AM PST by Red Badger ( We don't have science, but we do have consensus.......)
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To: goldstategop

The Left considers an unborn baby more threatening to society than the enemies who want to kill us.


10 posted on 11/06/2007 7:07:06 AM PST by divine_moment_of_facts (So, I put on some tangerine lip gloss and answered the door.. I was one lucky woman.)
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To: Alberta's Child
Any law that forces people to engage in commerce against their will is a farce.

Then you support the cabdrivers who refuse service to the blind with a dog, alcoholics with alcohol, immodest women, Jews ...

11 posted on 11/06/2007 7:10:23 AM PST by DUMBGRUNT (Life is Good!)
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To: NYer
New Jersey Forces Pharmacists to Dispense Abortifacient Drugs Regardless of Conscience

Yet, it's ok for the muzzie at the grocery store to refuse to sell people pork products. NICE.

12 posted on 11/06/2007 7:14:44 AM PST by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: NYer
Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich was forced by courts to back down on a law similar

For the record, here in IL there was no 'law' per se. 'My' idiot gov Blagojevich issued an executive fiat that 'it shall be done' - period. The IL General Assembly was completely bypassed.

And speaking of Blago, that incompetent moron has everyone so ticked off that a Recall Bill is being introduced in the IL House. Something we never needed since IL became a state in 1818. And that's saying something considering all the crooks who've served in office.

13 posted on 11/06/2007 7:17:36 AM PST by Condor51 (Rudy makes John Kerry look like a Right Wing 'Gun Nut' Extremist)
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To: NYer

I appreciate the pharmacists’ objections.

At the same time, however, I don’t want Muslim cab drivers to be able to deny me a ride if I’ve got a bottle of wine or a dog with me. Or a Muslim grocery checker to refuse to bag my ham.

So, to be objective, I guess I’d have tell the pharmacists to get different jobs, just like I’d tell the cabbies. :/

This one’s not easy. At least not for me.


14 posted on 11/06/2007 7:38:15 AM PST by USArmySpouse
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To: BritExPatInFla; NYer; wideawake
"Otherwise, any pharmacy that sells them can damn well ensure their employees don’t block access to them..."

That would seemingly be true if the pharmacy itself made the decision to carry the lethal drugs, and then dealt with the dissenting pharmacist in an employer-employee relationship. However, it appears here that the State of New Jersey has stepped in to strip both the employer (the pharmacy) and the employee (the pharmacist) of their proper role in exercising the due diligence required by any kind of medical ethics, i.e. to ensure that medicines are truly therapeutic; in other words, to ensure that both the type of medicine and the dosage will do no harm to life and health.

A pharmacist is not a vending machine and is not even some kind of glorified sales clerk. A pharmacist has a professional duty to employ his or her specialized knowledge and training to cure disease, heal injury, provide relief from pain and other symptomatic distress, and not to apply drugs to actually cause disorders, suffering or death.

FTA: “Discussion of morals and matters of conscience is admirable, [as long as nobody actually acts on it] but should not come into play when subjective beliefs objective ethical obligations conflict with objective profitable medical decisions,” said state Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, a bill sponsor."

There. Fixed it.

Oh, and check out my tagline, a quote from Thomas Jefferson.

15 posted on 11/06/2007 7:40:54 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o ("The care of human life, and not its destruction, is the first and only object of good government")
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To: BritExPatInFla
If that Toyota dealer is also a Ford franchisee, then their salespeople wouldn’t have a choice, either.

That's between the salespeople and their employer. It's none of the government's business.

Neither is this.

16 posted on 11/06/2007 7:42:27 AM PST by Campion
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To: DUMBGRUNT; Alberta's Child
Actually, I would support cabdrivers' right to refuse service to anybody, at any time, for any reason.

And let the scrupulous Muslim cabbies display an Islamic emblem on their cab in full view, so the rest of us can boycott them into bankruptcy.

17 posted on 11/06/2007 7:46:21 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o (Those who give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety)
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To: BritExPatInFla

Pharmacists have the right to refuse to dispense anything
that will cause harm to any human, at any stage of life.
If the store wants to dispense the medications, let the manager do it,
or another pharmacist who has no compunctions. If that
cannot be done, create a caveat to the law which lets the
physician dispense the medication.
(p.s. physicians can’t normally dispense meds except for
small trial regimens due to the possibility of
their own bias, mistakes, poor knowledge of other drugs
the patient is taking and its side effects, poor knowledge,
of drug interactions, and pharmacokinetic profiles, the
possibility of prescribing to get kickbacks from drug companies
, etc....but in this case, let them dispense the meds.
That way the blood of the child will be on their heads.
>I wonder how many of their office nurses will have objections to
dispensing abortifacients)


18 posted on 11/06/2007 7:46:45 AM PST by Getready (Wisdom is more valuable than gold and diamonds, and harder to find.)
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To: Coleus; wagglebee

ping


19 posted on 11/06/2007 7:49:09 AM PST by Calpernia (Hunters Rangers - Raising the Bar of Integrity http://www.barofintegrity.us)
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To: USArmySpouse

Stopping the development of a human life, at any stage
is quite different from missing a cab ride.
I would bet the cab driver who didn’t drive you to a
hospital to have your baby delivered and there
was harm to the child, would be prosecuted
if he didn’t drive you cause you had a bottle of wine
in your baggage.


20 posted on 11/06/2007 7:50:23 AM PST by Getready (Wisdom is more valuable than gold and diamonds, and harder to find.)
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