Press Room

Contact: Peggy Hamill, State Director
Matt Sande, Director of Legislative Affairs
(262) 796-1111, (414) 416-0489 or info@prolifewisconsin.org

Assembly Labor Committee Approves Pharmacists' Conscience Clause

Madison - The Assembly Labor Committee gave their approval this morning to Assembly Bill 63, legislation that will provide much needed job security for pharmacists who conscientiously object to dispensing drugs or devices that they reasonably believe would be used to cause death through abortion, euthanasia, physician assisted suicide, or any other method of intentionally killing another human being.
In response to compelling public testimony from several Wisconsin pharmacists last March, the Assembly Labor Committee on a 6 to 2 vote sent the measure on for expected approval by the full Assembly. Pro-Life Wisconsin applauds the leadership and support of the bill’s author, Representative Carol Owens (R-Oshkosh), as well as the following Labor Committee members who voted in favor of AB 63: Committee Chairman Steve Nass (R-Palmyra), Committee Vice-Chairman Dan Vrakas (R-Hartland), and Representatives Wayne Wood (D-Janesville), Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend), Jeff Fitzgerald (R-Beaver Dam), and Jean Hundertmark (R-Clintonville). The dissenting votes came from Representatives Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee) and Terry Van Akkeren (D-Sheboygan).

"In the past ten years new abortion techniques focusing on chemical means to end the life of preborn babies have received FDA approval or became more readily available," said Matt Sande, legislative affairs director for Pro-Life Wisconsin. "While abortion was formerly relegated to a clinical setting, it is now possible to receive life-ending drugs in a pharmacy, thus compelling pharmacists to be party to abortion."

Opposing testimony employed the scare tactic that this bill would ban birth control. "This is not true," said Sande. "The bill will not make drugs such as the morning-after pill and the birth control pill unavailable. It simply recognizes that pharmacists, like doctors and nurses, are valued members of the professional health care team who should not be forced to choose between their consciences and their livelihoods. Just as a woman's legal right to surgical abortion should not compel a hospital to provide one, a woman's legal right to abortifacient drugs should not compel a pharmacist to dispense them."

AB 63 is modeled after legislation that was enacted into law in March, 1998, in the state of South Dakota. Missouri and North Carolina are currently considering legislation that would recognize the rights of pharmacists not to engage in procedures that violate their consciences.

"People who call themselves 'pro-choice' should especially appreciate the intent of this bill," said Peggy Hamill, Pro-Life Wisconsin's state director. "Pharmacists should have the right to choose not to be complicit in the taking of innocent human life."