Press Room

Contact: Director of Legislative Affairs Matt Sande, (262) 796-1111, cell: (262) 352-0890
State Director Peggy Hamill, (262) 796-1111, cell: (414) 416-0489



Pharmacist’s Punishment Upheld for Conscientious Objection to Birth Control Pills



Brookfield, WI – The stiff fine and license suspension levied against a Wisconsin pharmacist when he refused to transfer a patient’s birth control prescription that he conscientiously could not fill has been upheld in a Barron County Circuit Court. The Wisconsin Pharmacy Examining Board had suspended Neil Noesen’s license for a minimum of two years, and demanded that Noesen submit to a minimum of six credit hours of continuing education classes in pharmacy ethics at his own expense. Noesen is also required to pay for all legal fees associated with the legal case against him. The punishment amounts to a two-year suspension of his license and fines and fees well-over $20,000.

The Noesen case is entirely about conscience and religious freedom. No one in the case – the prosecution, the defense or the judge – is disputing Noesen’s basic right to a conscientious objection. The question is: did Noesen go about exercising his conscientious objection in an appropriate manner?

There is nothing in current Wisconsin law stating what procedures a pharmacist must follow if he or she conscientiously objects to dispensing a particular drug. There is no law, state code or regulation that governs how a pharmacist is to exercise his or her conscientious objection.

“How can Noesen be charged with a violation of conduct when the judge cannot point to anything he specifically violated?” said Matt Sande, Director of Legislative Affairs for Pro-Life Wisconsin. “The harsh punishment levied against Mr. Noesen makes it clear that Mr. Noesen is being singled out for exercising his right to conscientiously object. The whole case is a sham.”

“If this were a medication prescribed to make a sick person well again or to fight a disease, then it wouldn’t be an issue,” said Sande. “But we’re talking about hormonal birth control – drugs with known serious side effects, most often taken by perfectly healthy women for reasons totally divorced from her own health,” Sande continued. “You add to that the possible presence of a second patient – a conceived embryo – and it becomes clear why a pharmacist would have ethical and moral problems with these drugs.”

When a woman takes the birth control pill to avoid pregnancy, she is placed at risk of serious side effects with little or no benefit to her health. Hormonal birth control increases a woman’s susceptibility to HIV, increases her risk of breast cancer and cervical cancer, creates potentially fatal blood clots and is associated with mood swings and weight gain. In addition, it weakens the lining of the uterus and can cause an abortion by blocking implantation of a newly conceived embryo.


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