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Catholic Pharmacist Case Dismissed -- K-Mart in the Right to Fire over Refusal to Dispense Abortifacient Pills

By Hilary White

MADISON, June 6, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Christian pharmacist fired by K-Mart for refusing to dispense abortifacient drugs has had his lawsuit dismissed by a Wisconsin judge. U.S. District Judge John Shabaz ruled that K-Mart was right to fire Neil Noesen who brought a suit of religious discrimination against his former employer and against Medical Staffing Network, which had placed him temporarily with K-Mart.

Noesen refused to accept a settlement fine of US $250 and brought a suit against K-Mart who, he said, was violating his religious principles by insisting that he dispense birth control pills or refer the client to another pharmacist who would.

A lawyer representing Medical Staffing Network, Stephanie Adler, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that this is among the first cases to go to trial in which a pharmacist had been fired over refusal to dispense the hormonal contraceptives.

"It demonstrates there has to be a balance between accommodating someone's religious beliefs while at the same time providing a service and allowing people access to medical care,'' Adler said. "Noesen believes that his personal beliefs are more important than a patient's right to have access to legally prescribed medication.''

Medical Staffing Network said that Noesen was given accommodation for his religious beliefs but that a priority must be to fill legal prescriptions. The judge ruled that Noesen's behaviour was "disruptive", as he repeatedly refused to find another pharmacist to fill the prescriptions.

The case illustrates a growing dilemma for Catholic health workers. Under Catholic moral law, artificial birth control, even without a secondary abortive effect, is mortally sinful and a Catholic pharmacist may neither dispense it nor be the direct cause of it being dispensed. This requirement supersedes for Catholics the requirement to fulfill the terms of employment.

Advocates of conscience legislation for pharmacists and other Catholic healthcare workers have said that the provision where a pharmacist is required to find another to fill a prescription does nothing to solve the problem.

Read previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Christian Pharmacist Still Fighting Charge of Unprofessional Conduct over Contraceptives

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/sep/04092904.html

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