Gov. Rod Blagojevich should be commended for issuing an emergency order concerning emergency contraception, one that has sparked a lawsuit against the governor’s office by the American Center for Law and Justice.

Blagojevich issued an emergency rule at the beginning of April barring Illinois pharmacists from refusing to fill prescriptions for “morning after” birth control pills because of personal beliefs regarding birth control. State officials received complaints that a licensed pharmacist in Chicago twice refused to fill a prescription because she morally opposed the use of emergency contraception. Blagojevich said the regulation says that if a woman goes to a pharmacy with a prescription for emergency birth control, the pharmacy is expected to fill it in the same way and same period of time that it would fill any other prescription in. It cannot discriminate who it sells to and who it doesn’t, Blagojevich said.

Pharmacists know going into the profession they’ll have to fill all kinds of prescriptions.

The emergency order lasts for 150 days, and the administration plans to ask that it be replaced by a permanent rule. There should be a permanent law requiring pharmacists to fill any prescription, regardless of personal beliefs. Just because a pharmacist may oppose the use of emergency contraception doesn’t mean he or she should have the right to deny it to a patient who has a prescription for it. At the very least, an individual pharmacist should have another pharmacist or an assistant fill the order. Making the patients go to another location could pose a real hardship for some, especially those in rural areas or without good transportation.

Courts have never decided whether pharmacists are covered by the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act, which allows medical professionals to opt out of an area of medical practice they are uncomfortable with. The ACLJ is charging in its lawsuit that Blagojevich’s order is a violation of this act for pharmacists.

But pharmacists are merely filling a prescription ordered by a doctor. Pharmacies should not have the right to make a decision to deny a prescription to a patient.

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