Pharmacists for Life International (PFLI) is an international

anti-abortion Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respons ...

organization advocating the rights of

pharmacists A pharmacist, also known as a chemist (Commonwealth English) or a druggist (North American and, archaically, Commonwealth English), is a healthcare professional who prepares, controls and distributes medicines and provides advice and instructi ...

who refuse to fill or dispense prescriptions for artificial, hormonal, or

emergency contraception Emergency contraception (EC) is a birth control measure, used after sexual intercourse to prevent pregnancy. There are different forms of EC. Emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs), sometimes simply referred to as emergency contraceptives (ECs), o ...

to "protect the rights of employees who hold religious beliefs". PFLI holds that no "employee should be forced to choose between their livelihood and their conscience". In the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, at least six states have such conscience clauses for personnel in medical-related fields. PFLI President Karen Brauer was fired in 1996 from a

Kmart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inc ...

pharmacy in Delphi, Ohio for refusing to fill birth control prescriptions.''Washington Post''
Pharmacists' Rights at Front Of New Debate.
March 28, 2005. The

American Center for Law and Justice The American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) is a politically conservative, Christian-based legal organization in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and associated with Regent University School of Law in Virginia Beach, V ...

(ACLJ) represented Brauer and filed suit against Kmart in U.S. District Court in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

in August 1999. In January 2001, the court refused Kmart's request to dismiss the suit, ruling that Brauer's case could go forward under Ohio's conscience law. On April 16, 2001, in an appearance on Fox News's ''

The O'Reilly Factor ''The O'Reilly Factor'' (originally titled ''The O'Reilly Report'' and also known as ''The Factor'') is an American cable television news and talk show. ''The O'Reilly Factor'' first aired in the United States on Fox News Channel on October 7 ...

'', Brauer acknowledged that she did not directly decline or refuse to fill the prescription but, rather, lied to the customer by saying the pharmacy was out of stock of the contraceptive in question ( Micronor), which Brauer holds is designed to "terminate a human life that has already begun". When the customer learned the truth she complained to the store's management, which led to the incident which in turn resulted in Brauer's lawsuit.

References

External links

PFLI website
Pharmacy-related professional associations Anti-abortion organizations {{abortion-stub