[Pflienews] PharmFacts E-News Update: Conscience Debate remains in WI after Pharmacist loses appeal

Tue Apr 8 10:54:15 MDT 2008

*PharmFacts E-News Update -- 8 Apr 2008 AD

*http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0801875.htm
PHARMACIST Apr-7-2008 (660 words) xxxn

*Conscience questions remain after Catholic pharmacist loses appeal*

By Franz Klein
Catholic News Service <http://www.catholicnews.com/index.html>

MADISON, Wis. (CNS) -- Although a Wisconsin judge upheld the official 
reprimand of a Catholic pharmacist who refused to dispense a 
contraceptive drug to a college student or transfer the prescription to 
another pharmacy, debate on the issue of conscience rights was 
continuing in the state.

In a March 24 decision, 3rd District Court Judge Michael Hoover rejected 
pharmacist Neil Noesen's appeal of sanctions imposed on him by the 
Wisconsin Pharmacy Examining Board in 2005.

However, an official of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference said the judge 
nevertheless acknowledged that conscience rights under the state 
constitution are even broader than those granted by the U.S. Constitution.

Kim Wadas, the Catholic conference's associate director for education 
and health care, said Hoover's affirmation of conscience rights was a 
step in the right direction.

"We were excited to see some of that language, which continued to 
recognize that pharmacists have a right of conscience," Wadas told The 
Catholic Times, newspaper of the La Crosse Diocese. "This is something 
we advocate for on behalf of health professionals, especially Catholic 
health professionals."

Wadas also praised state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, a Democrat and member 
of St. Lawrence Parish in Alma, for her efforts to amend the Birth 
Control Protection Act, which would have forced pharmacists to dispense 
drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

"We're very grateful for her actions regarding this legislation, for the 
recognition of unborn life, and also for the recognition of the right of 
conscience for pharmacists," she said.

Vinehout's first amendment removed language that would have redefined 
abortion to exclude the use or prescription of any FDA-approved 
contraceptive, even if that contraceptive is abortifacient. She told The 
Catholic Times that the redefinition of abortion was a separate issue 
and did not belong in the language of a conscience-clause bill.

A second amendment modified the bill to protect the conscience rights of 
pharmacists and institutions that employ them not to dispense 
contraceptives. Article 1, Section 18 of the state constitution says no 
"control of or interference with the right of conscience" is to be 
permitted.

"I think it's wrong to write a law that is opposed to a document that I 
took an oath to uphold," Vinehout said. "The way the bill was drafted, 
it didn't acknowledge the conscience of the pharmacist."

The proposed legislation passed the Wisconsin state Senate during the 
legislative session's closing hours March 13 only to die at that point, 
since the Assembly had already concluded its session.

The Noesen case dates to 2002, when he was working in the pharmacy at a 
Kmart in Menominee and refused to dispense FE 1/20, a hormonal 
contraceptive, to Amanda Phiede, who was a student at the University of 
Wisconsin in Stout.

In 2005 Administrative Law Judge Colleen Baird found that Noesen's 
refusal to fill the prescription constituted "a danger to the health, 
welfare or safety of a patient and was practiced in a manner which 
substantially departs from the standard of care ordinarily exercised by 
a pharmacist and which harmed or could have harmed a patient."

Hoover's ruling upheld the state pharmacy board's reprimand and limited 
Noesen's pharmacy license so that he would be required to notify a 
potential employer of his inability to distribute certain drugs and 
detail in writing how he would ensure the patient's access to those drugs.

Noesen argued in his appeal that the Wisconsin Constitution protected 
his conscientious objection to cooperating materially in something he 
considers evil -- contraception. He also argued that state law does not 
indicate how this conscientious objection must be exercised.

But Hoover disagreed. "He prevented all the efforts (Phiede) made to 
obtain her medication elsewhere when he refused to complete the 
transfer," the appeals judge wrote. "The board could therefore properly 
conclude that he violated a standard of care applicable to pharmacists."

Noesen's lawyer said he would appeal the decision to the Wisconsin 
Supreme Court.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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