Illinois Pharmacists Take Conscience to Court
Two Illinois pharmacists who refuse to provide emergency contraception will defend their right of denial in Illinois Supreme Court. The pharmacists, Luke Vander Bleek and Glen Kosirog, see themselves as conscientious objectors to some guy called Governor Rod Blagojevich’s 2005 executive order requiring pharmacists to dispense contraception.
Their reasoning? “Deeply held religious convictions” coupled with the belief “that the drug can act as an abortion-causing agent.”
I’m interested to see how this pans out, especially in light of Bush’s “conscience” rule, which was finalized yesterday. Illinois’ ACLU reproductive rights project director Lorie Chaiten characterizes the conflict as between “the right to free exercise of religion and the right to access reproductive health care.”
Well, if Vander Bleek and Kosirog lose, they can always open up a pharmacy in Washington, D.C.
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8:22 pm
I skimmed this quickly at first and thought the first name was Van der Beek, and had this weird vision of Dawson being like “No! Joey, I’m not going to fill your birth control prescription so that you can have dirty immoral sex with Pacey!” Which doesn’t seem all that implausible, since Dawson was kind of a jerk.
11:39 am
just an fyi; the link to Bush’s “conscience” rule is missing the “h” of the “http”
keep up the excellent work!
11:43 am
Oops. I’ve patched that up. Thanks!