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6 Yale J. Health Pol'y L. & Ethics 269 (2006)
Conscience Clauses or Unconscionable Clauses: Personal Beliefs versus Professional Responsibilities

handle is hein.journals/yjhple6 and id is 273 raw text is: Conscience Clauses or Unconscionable Clauses: Personal Beliefs Versus Professional Responsibilities Martha S. Swartz, M.S.S., J.D.* In 2002, a University of Wisconsin student brought a prescription for Loestrin to pharmacist Neil Noesen, who was working in a local community pharmacy in Menomonie, Wisconsin. Noesen refused to fill the prescription, citing his conscientious objection to participation in refilling a contraceptive order.' He failed to ask the student whether she had any medical conditions that might make pregnancy dangerous.2 He also refused to inform her of any other local pharmacies that were capable of filling the prescription.3 When the student, on her own, located another pharmacy, Noesen refused to transfer the prescription, claiming that doing so would induce another to do a morally wrong or sinful act pursuant to the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church.4 As a result, the student was unable to take her medication as prescribed and risked pregnancy.5 Pharmacists in a number of other states-including California, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Washington-have also refused to fill similar prescriptions.6 Some pharmacists will only dispense birth control pills to married women; others * Principal, Law Office of Martha Swartz, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Adjunct Professor of Law, Rutgers School of Law-Camden. I would like to thank Mandy Knox, Allison Suflas, and Sarah Wang for their valuable research assistance and Rutgers School of Law-Camden for its support. 1. Protection of Conscience Project, Police Used To Intimidate Objecting Pharmacist: Statement of Neil Noesen, pharmD (cand.) (Nov. 20, 2003), http://www.consciencelaws.org/ Repression-Conscience/Conscience-Repression-33.htm. 2. Disciplinary Proceeding Against Neil T. Noesen, 01 P.H.M. 080, slip op. at 16 (Wis. Pharm. Examining Bd. Feb. 28, 2005) (proposed final decision & order), aff'd, Noesen v. Wis. Dep't of Reg. & Licensing Pharm. Examining Bd., No. 05CV212 (Wis. Cir. Ct. Feb. 3, 2006). 3. Id. at 5. 4. Id. at 5. 5. Id. at 20. Indeed, the student later became pregnant as the result of one missed dose of her contraceptive medication. Id. 6. Rob Stein, Pharmacists' Rights at Front of New Debate; Because of Beliefs, Some Refuse To Fill Birth Control Prescriptions, WASH. POST, Mar. 28, 2005, at A 1.