WA sez ‘da’ to Pharmacist Conscience Rights

A federal court in Tacoma, Washington, struck down a Washington law that requires pharmacists to dispense the abortifacient so-called “morning-after pill” even when doing so would violate their religious beliefs. The court held that the law violates the First Amendment right to free exercise of religion. Storman’s pharmacies, a family owned business that also fought assisted-suicide-by-pharmacist in WA state, was one of the lead plaintiffs in the case.

WA lefty liberal governor Chris Gregoire had stacked the state board of pharmacy in 2007 to vote to approve mandatory imposition of her immorality on pharmacists who still have a conscience.

“The Board of Pharmacy’s 2007 rules are not neutral, and they are not generally applicable,” the Court explained. “They 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 Board’s regulations have been aimed at Plan B and conscientious objections from their inception,” the court explained. “Indeed, Plaintiffs have presented reams of [internal government documents] demonstrating that the predominant purpose of the rule was to stamp out the right to refuse [for religious reasons].”

At preliminary hearings in 2007 and 2008, following a court injunction, it looked like Gregoire  would lose the case in court, so she did the political pretentious thing and temporarily allowed pharmacists to exercize their God-given rights of conscience. Then she rescinded it.

Now she has lost handily and experts predict the ruling would be upheld subsequently in higher courts, should Gregoire persist in her insanity of attacking pharmacists of conscience and violating their civil rights.

Sorry, Chris, no soup for you! Next!