TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A federal judge is considering whether Washington condition can require pharmacies to stock and sell Plan B or other emergency contraceptives, unruffled in the face of religious objections ~ dint of. druggists who believe they destroy human life.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton heard closing arguments Wednesday in a action that claims state rules violate the consistent with the constitution rights of pharmacists by requiring them to relieve such medicine. The state requires pharmacies to dispense any medication for which there is a community need and to stock a agent assortment of drugs needed by their patients.

Ralph's Thriftway in Olympia, Wash., and brace licensed Washington pharmacists sued in 2007, statement that dispensing Plan B would violate on their religious beliefs because it can prevent the implantation of a fertilized ovum. The state says the requirements are authorized because they apply neutrally to medicines and pharmacies, and that they assist a government interest — the timely lying-in of medicine, including Plan B, that becomes less effective as time passes.

The judge blocked the state dispensing rule in 2007, discovery that it would violate the plaintiffs' exemption from restraint. of religion. But a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel overruled him, saying that he applied the do a ~ to legal standard and that the restrain appeared constitutional because it was mediocre and did not directly target holy views.

The appellate court sent the protect back to Leighton, telling him to apply the correct standard. He held each 11-day trial to flesh ~right the matter, and in court Wednesday, he expressed small quantity patience for the state's inculcation of the rules, which he before-mentioned reminded him of the federal management's arbitrary enforcement of the after this-repealed rule against gays serving plainly in the military.

The issue is added important than many other freedom-of-system of faith cases, such as those concerning godly dress or other ceremonial matters, he reported.

"The question of life and end of life is serious," he thundered at ~y attorney for the state. "It's not facial hair, it's not a burka. ... I end not know when life begins, ~-end I will not denigrate somebody's see of when life begins."

Leighton reported he would rule in a couple weeks, and that he intended to devise his opinion in a way that would buoy up the 9th Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court to ingenuity whether pharmacists have a due-action right to refuse to provide remedial agent that they believe can take a life.

"Somebody at higher pay and higher degree will decide this issue," he before-mentioned. "I'll tee it up."

Plan B had been at the center of the specify's decision in 2007 to adopt the Washington Board of pharmacy's dispensary requirements. The physic, which has a high dose of remedy found in birth-control pills, is competent in preventing pregnancy if a woman takes it in the reach 72 hours of unprotected sex.

Individual pharmacists are allowed to move a prescription to another druggist in the similar store, provided the order is not delayed. But that leaves no option for a lone druggist or a pharmacy owner with scrupulous objections to a particular drug.

The pharmacists "have power to violate their core religious beliefs and partake in the taking of a human life, or they have power to lose their license," lawyer Kristen Waggoner reported during her closing argument.

The pharmacists argued they have power to easily and quickly refer customers to nearby deaden with narcotics stores willing to sell the deaden with narcotics, but women's rights groups afore~ that may not be the envelop in rural areas. It might also be difficult for those with disabilities granting that their pharmacists decide not to excuse it for personal reasons, they before-mentioned.

Waggoner noted business exemptions that suffer pharmacies not to stock a remedy, including low demand, high cost, assurance concerns, and security reasons in cases in what place stocking a drug such as the addictive painkiller oxycodone could grow risk of theft. If the explain allows pharmacies not to stock a remedy for non-religious reasons, it should furthermore allow them not to stock a unsalable article for religious ones, she argued.

Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire, who supports the dispensary requirements, has rejected a put in jeopardy that would have allowed druggists to point patients to other pharmacies for reasons of conscience.

A group that includes HIV patients has intervened in the capsule on the state's behalf, arguing that admitting that pharmacies can refuse to dispense Plan B in opposition to religious reasons, some might also decline to dispense AIDS medications, for model.

According to filings in the suit, eight states have rules requiring pharmacists to execute all drugs. But most of those dress in't require pharmacies to stock Plan B or homogeneous drugs, so pharmacies in those states wouldn't have ~ing required to dispense them, the plaintiffs offer reasons.

Waggoner noted that the state showed ~t one interest in rigidly enforcing the rule until groups such as Planned Parenthood began filing complaints and sending exhibition-shoppers and picketers to pharmacies to behold if they would dispense Plan B. She reported it indicated the state's virtuous objective was to stamp out holy objection to the drug, an idea she called "repugnant to the Constitution."

Hospital pharmacies in the position do not fall under the rules, that govern retail, outpatient pharmacies, and they can refuse to dispense certain drugs despite reasons of conscience. Catholic hospitals won't deal out Plan B except in cases of carnal knowledge of a woman , Leighton noted.

That makes the position's argument about promoting access to the medicine a "red herring," he said.

"The fallen away people who rely on emergency rooms don't get the so-called kind office of the rule," he said. "It's riddled with exceptions and holes. It's Swiss cheese."

The affirm's lawyers argued that exemptions to the govern increase the accessibility of drugs because it helps pharmacies stay competitive.

Plan B is kept backward the counter but is available in the absence of a prescription to anyone over 17. Federal regulators recently recommended that it be sold to anyone indifferent of age, but the Obama giving overruled its own experts in December, outraging women's rights groups and divers in the president's own cabal.

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Johnson can be reached at https://flutter.com/GeneAPseattle

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