Spectre’s Sayings

The Illinois State Journal-Register is reporting the following:

A federal judge’s ruling this week upholds the right of Illinois pharmacists to refuse to dispense emergency contraception.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2005 issued a rule requiring Illinois pharmacies to dispense emergency contraception. The governor’s rule was designed to prevent pharmacies from being able to deny women access to “Plan B” contraceptives, even if pharmacists who work there disagree with dispensing the drug on moral grounds.

Some pharmacists consider Plan B a form of abortion because the drug can prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in a woman’s uterus.

Wal-Mart and Walgreen Co. have disciplined some company pharmacists for either refusing to dispense Plan B or for refusing to promise that they would dispense emergency contraception if asked.

U.S. Judge Jeanne Scott Tuesday denied a request by Wal-Mart to throw out a lawsuit filed by pharmacist Ethan Vandersand. Scott sided with Vandersand, who had claimed that he was legally protected from discipline by the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act when he declined to dispense Plan B.

Vandersand, who lives in Bluffs, formerly worked at the pharmacy in Beardstown’s Wal-Mart and was put on unpaid leave after he refused to fill a Plan B prescription requested by a nurse practitioner at Springfield’s Planned Parenthood on behalf of a female patient in February 2006.

Wal-Mart had contended that the state’s right-of-conscience law doesn’t cover pharmacists. Walgreen Co. has made the same argument in other Illinois lawsuits filed by fired pharmacists.

But Scott wrote in her ruling, “The statute prohibits discrimination against any person for refusing to provide health care because of his conscience.”

She also wrote: “Providing medication … constitutes health-care services. Any person, including Vandersand, who refuses to participate in any way in providing medication because of his conscience is protected by the Right of Conscience Act.”

Vandersand’s lawsuit against Wal-Mart, in which he is asking for lost pay and an unspecified amount of monetary damages, continues in federal court.

I’ve always held that Governor Rod’s rule was unconstitutional in that it infringed on pharmacists’ right of freedom of religion (guaranteed by the 1st amendment to the U.S. Constitution). I’ve also contended that it is tyrannical in that it coerced people to act in ways contrary to the dictates of their conscience. I’m glad to see the courts acting as the founders intended.

The Illinois State Journal-Register is reporting the following:

Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes said today that it is irresponsible for Gov. Rod Blagojevich to threaten a government shutdown if the legislature doesn’t send the governor a budget to his liking.

“It’s my belief that it would do a disservice to all state employees and all who rely on state government to allow government to be shut down or to allow the prospect of a shutdown to be used for political or legislative advantage,” Hynes told the editorial board of The State Journal-Register.

“If the legislature passes a 12-month budget by a supermajority vote, the game’s over,” Hynes said. “And to throw out the idea of a government shutdown is, I think, a dangerous thing.”

Hynes said it was a good move when the governor asked state employees Tuesday to stay on the job and assured them they would be paid in full once a new budget is passed.

Wednesday, however, the governor told legislative leaders in a letter that if they send him a 12-month budget he considers unbalanced, it will “simply precipitate a shutdown.”

Hynes said he found that letter “very disturbing.”

“It’s my belief that that letter and all of his behavior the past several weeks and months leads me to believe that he intends on shutting the government down,” Hynes said.

“I think what we all need to do is say, ‘In no case, in no event will we shut down government,” Hynes said.

Becky Carroll, speaking for the Blagojevich administration, said Blagojevich “wants to avoid a shutdown, which is why he has strongly advocated that the legislature pass a 30-day budget, and we would ask the comptroller to join us in that effort.

” It’s also unfortunate that he should make such heated comments about what the governor’s intentions are without even speaking with him personally,” she said.

Odd that the story doesn’t mention the names of the legislative leaders with whom the governor is having budgetary disagreements, isn’t it?