9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to anti-choicers: suck it

A three-judge panel has ruled a federal judge overreached when he decided wingnut pharmacists in Washington State had the right to refuse selling Plan B, based on their religious beliefs. The case has been sent back to the District Court for another look.


Plan B  is labelled as an emergency contraceptive, designed to reduce the risk of pregnancy within the first 72 hours of sexual intercourse.  Pharmacists who refuse to sell the product claim the procedure is akin to abortion, which is absolutely ridiculous. I suppose the next logical conclusion would be to describe the use of condoms as performing abortions as well.

According to assistant attorney general for Washington state, Joyce Roper, the new ruling means that pharmacies will have to stock up and distribute the drug immediately. There are other legal wranglings involved in this case and they will also be looked at.

I would also like to point out that two of the three judges on the panel were appointed by none other than dubya.

The other by Clinton. Here is part of what they had to say. 

The right to freely exercise one's religion "does not relieve an individual of the obligation to comply with a valid and neutral law of general applicability," the 9th Circuit panel wrote.

"Any refusal to dispense -- regardless of whether it is motivated by religion, morals, conscience, ethics, discriminatory prejudices, or personal distaste for a patient -- violates the rules," the panel said.