IL judge rules against Guv "Slobodan" and his diktat, in favor of Pharmacists' Rights of Conscience
Special to the PFLI PharmAid Center
Columbus, OH, 2 Aug 2007 (PFLI PharmAid Center)--Today, (07-23-07) Judge Jeanne Scott in Springfield, IL, in the case of Vandersand v. Walmart, issued a ruling that, at last, definitively decides in our favor the issues of :
1) whether the Right of Conscience Act covers pharmacists (it does);
2) whether pharmacists are health care personnel (they are);
3) whether pharmacists participate in the delivery of health care services (they do);
4)
whether "the Rule" requires individual pharmacists (as
opposed to pharmacists) to dispense Plan B (it doesn't).
As
is well known, each of these questions has been disputed by
Walgreens, Walmart, and/or the State of IL at various times and in
sundry pieces of litigation, including the 5 IL pharmacists who
currently are in litigation against Governor “Slobodan”
Blagojevich.
Those arguments are no longer available to the opponents of pharmacist rights of conscience and freedom to pratice their religion without sacrificing their livelihood any longer. So-called "mainstream" pharmacy organizations were noticibly absent in defending pharmacists as health care personnel during this lawsuit, despite their public overtures that pharmacists are full members of the health care team, failing again to defend the profession's rights, duties and responsibilities.
Developing......