Illinois Court Backs Pro-Life Pharmacists

We've experienced an important victory in our battle to protect the rights of pharmacists who object to dispensing abortion-producing drugs because of their religious beliefs.
 
An Illinois state court has rejected the latest attempt by a major pharmacy chain to remove pharmacists from the state's Health Care Right of Conscience Act.  On April 18th, Judge Daniel Stack of the Madison County Circuit Court denied a motion by Walgreens to dismiss a series of cases brought by four former Walgreens pharmacists who allege that they were fired by the company for refusing to agree to dispense Plan B and other "emergency contraceptives."
 
The ACLJ is representing Rich Quayle, Carol Muzzarelli, Kelly Hubble and John Menges in the lawsuits against Walgreens.  And, Frank Manion, ACLJ Senior Counsel who argued the motion in court, told me that Walgreens argued that pharmacists were not covered by the Conscience Act, a law that prohibits discrimination against "any person" who refuses to participate "in any way in any form of health care services contrary to his or her conscience."  Walgreens also contended that pharmacists are not "health care professionals" under the Act.
 
That, of course, is an absurd argument and we're very pleased the court rejected that line of reasoning.  In fact, Judge Stack rejected all of the company's arguments, finding that, in his words, "plaintiffs are not excluded from the Act."
 
The judge wrote that his opinion was influenced by two previous Illinois federal court decisions in which the ACLJ represented clients suing under the Act.  In particular, the court found the case of Vandersand v. Wal-Mart, 525 F. Supp. 2d 1052 (C.D. Ill. 2007), to be "instructive, influential and logical."   In that case, Wal-Mart raised arguments identical to those being used by Walgreens in the Madison County cases.  U.S. District Court Judge Jeanne Scott found Wal-Mart's arguments to be baseless and issued a written opinion which has now been cited as "persuasive authority", not only in Madison County, but also by the U.S. District Court in Washington in the case of Stormans v. Selecky, 524 F. Supp. 2d 1245 (W.D. Wash. 2007).
 
This is an important victory as this issue moves forward.  ACLJ Senior Counsel Frank Manion, who has worked on this issue for years, can now move forward with the pretrial discovery process in the Madison County cases.  No trial date has been set yet.  But we are encouraged by this latest court decision which represents yet another confirmation that pharmacists who are willing to take a stand for the sanctity of life as well as the dignity of their profession are not without legal recourse.
 
The ACLJ will continue to aggressively defend the rights of these pro-life pharmacists and we will keep you posted as the legal proceedings unfold.