June 29, 2016

Supreme Court rejects appeal for pharmacists' conscience rights

The US Supreme Court has declined to hear a challenge to a Washington state law that requires pharmacists to provide customers with potentially abortifacient drugs.

The Court's decision, announced on June 28, lets stand a state law that was enacted in 2007, obliging pharmacies to provide "emergency contraceptive" bills to women with valid prescriptions. The law had been challenged by pharmacists who had moral objections to dispensing pills that could cause the destruction of unborn children.

Justice Samuel Alito, one of three justices who argued that the Supreme Court should hear the appeal, called the denial an "ominous sign." He wrote in an angry dissent: "If this is a sign of how religious liberty claims will be treated in the years ahead, those who value religious freedom have cause for great concern."

Click here for more from Catholic World News.