Penalty for
Pharmacist's Refusal Upheld
By ROBERT IMRIE, from
the Web, March 26, 2008
WAUSAU, Wis. -- A state
appeals court upheld sanctions Tuesday against a pharmacist who refused to
dispense birth control pills to a woman and wouldn't transfer her prescription
elsewhere.
The 3rd District Court of Appeals ruled that the punishment the state Pharmacy
Examining Board handed down against pharmacist Neil Noesen did not violate his
state constitutional rights, specifically his "right of conscience" to
religiously oppose birth control.
"Noesen abandoned even the steps necessary to perform in a minimally competent
manner under any standard of care," the three-judge panel said. The
decision upheld a ruling by Barron County Circuit Judge James Babler.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin praised the ruling as important for women's
access to reproductive health care. Several states have been wrestling
with the issue of pharmacists who refuse on religious grounds to dispense birth
control or "morning-after" pills.
Noessen's attorney Paul Linton said that he was disappointed but that no
decision had been made on whether to appeal.
The ruling "can curtail the religious rights of pharmacists and perhaps other
health care professionals," Linton said.
According to court records, Noesen was working as a substitute pharmacist at a
Menomonie Kmart in 2002 when a University of Wisconsin-Stout student sought to
refill her birth control prescription.
Noesen testified he advised the woman of his objection to the use of
contraception and refused to fill the prescription or tell her how or where she
could get it refilled.
The woman was able to get the prescription filled two days later but missed the
first dose of the medication, court records said. She filed a complaint
with the state Department of Regulation and Licensing.
Noesen, 34, of St. Paul, Minn., told regulators that he is a devout Roman
Catholic and refused to refill the prescription or release it to another
pharmacy because he didn't want to commit a sin by "impairing the fertility of a
human being."
The Pharmacy Examining Board ruled in 2005 that Noesen failed to carry out his
professional responsibility to get the woman's prescription to someone else if
he wouldn't fill it himself.
The board reprimanded Noesen and ordered him to attend ethics classes. He
was allowed to keep his license as long as he informs all future employers in
writing that he won't dispense birth control pills and outlines steps he will
take to make sure a patient has access to medication.
The board also found Noesen liable for the cost of the proceedings against him —
about $20,000 — but the appeals court ordered the board to reconsider that
decision.
Larry Dupuis, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of
Wisconsin, which like Planned Parenthood participated in the appeal, said the
ruling struck the proper balance between patients' and pharmacists' rights.
A pharmacy should accommodate its pharmacists' religious beliefs but it can't
leave "a patient high and dry," Dupuis said.
Noesen said the discipline "critically devastated" his business as a traveling
pharmacist because some pharmacies refused to hire him and he lost his liability
insurance, court records said.
There was no telephone listing for Noesen in St. Paul. Linton said he had
not talked to Noesen in several months and didn't know whether he still lived in
St. Paul.
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