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Wisconsin Pharmacists Plead for Critical Conscience Protection
PLW Letterhead

Wednesday, March 05, 2003


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

Wisconsin Pharmacists Plead for
Critical Conscience Protection


Testifying before the Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Labor, pharmacists presented a clear case for AB 63, critical pharmacist conscience clause legislation. AB 63, authored by Rep. Carol Owens (R-Oshkosh), and its Senate companion SB 21, authored by Sen. Tom Reynolds (R-West Allis), would prohibit employment discrimination against pharmacists who refuse to dispense drugs and devices they have reason to believe would be used to cause abortion, assisted suicide or euthanasia.

“No pharmacist should be forced to check their conscience at the workplace door,” stated Matt Sande, director of legislative affairs for Pro-Life Wisconsin. “AB 63 and SB 21 simply recognizes that employers cannot force pharmacists to directly participate in what they know to be the killing of another person.”

Compelling testimony offered by Yvonne Klubertanz, R.Ph., stated, “As a pharmacist licensed in the state of Wisconsin, I have experienced first hand harassment and fear of disciplinary action based on my professional decisions that were consistent with my creed and conscience.”

Dr. Michael Phillips verified the abortion-causing action of certain birth control drugs and devices, and Pro-Life Wisconsin legal counsel Kirby Brant explained the semantic gymnastics begun by Planned Parenthood and others in the 1950s which set the stage for widespread denial of the scientific facts, cited in Dr. Phillips’ testimony.

“Assaults on human life are increasingly chemical in nature, not surgical,” continued Sande, “thus drawing pharmacists into critical life and death issues.”