What These Pro-Life Pharmacists Did After Court Ruled They Must Sell ‘Emergency’ Contraceptives

Why would the government of a civilized country force a pro-life Christian pharmacist to carry drugs that might induce abortions?

The government investigated a pharmacy called Ralph’s Thriftway in Olympia, Washington, after disgruntled abortion advocates complained that it didn’t carry so-called emergency contraceptives. Afterward, the state created regulations that required pharmacies to stock drugs that might cause the deaths of unborn babies.

A federal court contended (PDF) that the state’s regulations “were designed instead to force religious objectors to dispense Plan B, and they sought to do so despite the fact that refusals to deliver for all sorts of secular reasons were permitted. The rules are unconstitutional as applied to Plaintiffs.” But a subsequent court ruled that the pharmacy had to carry the drugs.

Owner Kevin Stormans, who employs other pro-life pharmacists, has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. From the Washington Times:

The pharmacists say that when customers request an abortion-inducing drug, they refer the customer to one of some 30 nearby pharmacists that sell the drugs, said officials with Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, one of their legal representatives.

This referral process, which honors religious conscience, is legal in all 50 states and is approved by the American Pharmacists Association, the Becket Fund said. Thus, when the Washington law blocks such referrals, it is simply punishing people of faith, said attorney Luke Goodrich of the Becket Fund.

Although abortion has been legal for over 40 years, this issue will never go away. The high court found a previously unknown right of privacy for women to kill their own unborn children, and abortion advocates call this heinous practice health care. But snuffing out unborn life is neither a constitutional right nor any kind of health care, at least not for the baby.