A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Ruling Means Washington Pharmacists Must Dispense Assisted Suicide

A rule in Washington requires pharmacists to carry and dispense all legal medications. A pharmacy whose owners have a religious opposition to Plan B obtained an injunction at the trial court exempting their business from the rule based on religious discrimination. This was overturned the other day in an order stating that the rules are generally applicable, and thus they can be enforced even in the face of a bona fide religious objection by individual pharmacists.

This not only affects pharmacists that are opposed to dispensing potential abortofacients, but also those who do not wish to dispense drugs for use in assisted suicide, now legal in Washington.  In other words, unless the rule is changed, pharmacists who don’t want to partipate in the killing of another human being will either have to get out of the profession or leave the state. More details over at Secondhand Smoke .