Group Wants Pro-Life Health-Care Professionals Protected from Prosecution
by Mary Rettig
November 1, 2004
(AgapePress) - A Wisconsin case against a pharmacist for refusing to refill a birth-control prescription is causing one pro-life group to call for lawmakers to pass "conscience clauses."Karen Brauer is president of Pharmacists For Life International (PFLI). She says one of the organization's members, Wisconsin pharmacist Neil Noesen, is facing a different kind of trial in his stand to protect life. In 2002, when Noeson was working as an independent contractor in a Kmart pharmacy, he refused to refill or transfer a woman's prescription for birth-control pills, citing religious reasons. Now the pro-life medical professional is facing a loss of his pharmacist's license.
Brauer says the legal action against Noesen is breaking new ground -- and not in a positive way. This particular case differs from others brought this year in which pharmacists have refused to dispense, she notes, because in most other cases, the conflict comes between the pharmacist and his or her employer.
However, the pro-life spokeswoman explains "In this case, the state of Wisconsin itself is involved in the enforcement. The state of Wisconsin is holding a view that this pharmacist has to be in some way participating in something which involves the destruction of human life."
Brauer is concerned that the case could aggravate the already serious pharmacist shortage that exists in Wisconsin. And she believes what is happening to Noesen perfectly illustrates the need for lawmakers to protect health-care professionals who object to taking part in abortions or in the dispensation of abortifacient drugs, such as the so-called "morning-after pill."
The PFLI president notes that such protections have been proposed at the national level. "There's federal legislation that's actually part of a larger bill to offer protection for institutions and the medical professionals themselves," she says, "and for insurers, so that they are not expected to cover procedures and medications which can stop human life."
Such "conscience clause" legislation would allow pharmacists and other health-care workers to refuse to participate in any activity that may end life, and not fear being reprimanded. Brauer says about half of the states in the U.S. already have similar legislation on the books.
