SCOTUS Order: Washington State Can Require Pharmacies To Dispense Contraceptives

The flag flies in the wind in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, Monday, June 22, 2015. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is allowing Washington state to require pharmacies to dispense Plan B or other emergency contraceptives, rejecting an appeal from pharmacists who said they have religious objections to providing the drugs.

The justices’ order on Tuesday leaves in place rules first adopted in 2007 following reports that some women had been denied access to emergency contraceptives that are effective when taken within a few days of unprotected sex. Pharmacies must fill lawful prescriptions, but individual pharmacists with moral objections can refer patients to another pharmacist at the same store.

A Ralph’s Thriftway pharmacy in Olympia, Washington, and two pharmacists sued, saying the rules required them to violate their religious beliefs.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas said they would have heard the appeal.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  1. The cemetery where Scalia is buried reports multiple ground disturbances. They are being attributed to the rate at which he is spinning in his grave.

  2. What kind of God would bar his followers from referring someone to another pharmacist at the same store?

  3. It’s my provisional belief that your sincerely held religious beliefs are questionable. Because ultimately, sincerity is bullshit

  4. Yes, yes, a thousand times YES! I don’t care that the Ralph’s Thriftway pharmacist had a religious issue here. You are a pharmacist; you dispense what is written. It is not between you and your god.

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