Posted on 01/27/2006 12:56:47 PM PST by wagglebee
ST. LOUIS, Missouri, January 27, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Target pharmacist has lost her job for refusing to dispense or refer for the abortifacient morning-after pill.
“For me, life begins with two cells,” said Heather Williams, explaining that the so-called emergency contraception pill, Plan B by Barr Pharmaceuticals, often prevents implantation of a newly formed human embryo within the uterine wall – which, of course, constitutes abortion. The same mechanism is responsible for the sometimes abortifacient effect of the regular birth-control-pill.
According to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch report, Williams has refused to dispense or refer for the abortifacient for the past five years while working as a part-time Target pharmacy employee. She argues that to refer patients to a dispensary where they can find them is equally immoral. “I just can’t be a link in the chain at all,” Williams said.
Williams, who is a mother of three, lost her job over the issue as of January 1. She filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of Missouri. She says, however, that the blame for her dismissal belongs to Planned Parenthood, not the Target store. Planned Parenthood has spearheaded efforts across the US to mandate that pharmacists co-operate in chemical abortion.
Williams and attorney Ed Martin have appeared on television to argue that pharmacists are the scapegoats in the battle over Plan B. Martin is also the attorney for four Walgreens pharmacists from across the river in St. Louis, Illinois, who lost their jobs for the same reason. The four refused to abide by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s decree mandating that pharmacists dispense the abortifacient.
Blagojevich warned Illinois pharmacists in April to dispense the abortifacient morning-after pill or face legal backlash – despite a state statute that exempts pharmacists from participating in practices contrary to their religious views.
Williams said that Target forced pharmacists state-wide to sign a “conscience clause” last fall agreeing to dispense the abortifacient or refer to another pharmacy that does. She wrote the chain a letter December 1 telling them she could not sign the clause. “We had to make sure it was in stock, and even give directions to the store,” she said. “I would be a participant.”
Williams is losing her job even though the Target store where she worked has never stocked Plan B.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Walgreens Disciplines Four Pharmacists for Refusing Abortifacient Morning-After Pill Prescriptions
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/dec/05120102.html
She lost her job because the left only wants religious freedom to extend to those who despise religion.
Pro-life ping.
There are other pharmacist jobs out there. Screw Target.
Good luck with the EEOC filing. My wife was fired in writing without cause after years of good service for telling her boss she was pregnant. We lost in a suit to reclaim back wages and cost of insurance for child.
Ping.
That's an utterly foolish reply.
DISCUSSION ABOUT: "Target Pharmacist Fired for Refusing to Dispense Abortifacient Morning-After Pill"
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So why didn't she say "We don't carry that prescription. Please try another pharmacy." Sounds like she brought it on herself.
If she had been working there before Target began selling "morning after" pills, essentially they added an unforeseen requirement which contradicts her religion, and she would seem to have a very strong basis for a lawsuit. She has invested in a career at Target, and there is damages done by having to start over at a new location.
What makes the actions of the governor so profoundly evil is that it prevents the workings of a free market. Sure, an employer has the right to tell an employee what to do, providing that the requirements do not create an adverse change in the working environment. An employee is free to seek work elsewhere, so the employer loses a potential asset in the employee, and his competitor gains an asset; this is how free market pressures would have solved the race problem in the South once unconstitutional laws were removed: it's bad business to drive good employees or customers away.
What Blogojevich has done is to make pharmacists have reason to fear accomodating a pro-life employee.
God, Bless her for her stand.
Then find a different line of work.
I assume that by your logic it would be okay for physicians to be required to perform abortions?
Pharmacists are one of the highest demand jobs in the country. She can get another job tomorrow.
I eagerly await walking into a bookstore only to have the clerk tell me she won't sell me the book I want because it offends his/her beliefs.
“I just can’t be a link in the chain at all,”
Then find a different line of work.
"That's an utterly foolish reply."
No actually it's not.
That is a very flawed line of thinking.
A book doesn't directly lead to stopping a human life. You need to understand that disagreeing with a belief is very different from refusing to participate in a process which violates your beliefs.
go back to the baby-killing DU.
Then find a different line of work.
"That's an utterly foolish reply."
No actually it's not.
Yes it is. If a physician was required to perform abortions there would be outrage -- this is no different at all.
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