Tag: Mark Rienzi

Appellate Court Upholds Decision Protecting Pharmacists of Concience in Illinois

~ Pharmer

Court: Illinois Can't Force Pharmacists to Sell Plan B Drug | LifeNews.com.

The 2005 Blagojevich edict forcing pharmacists to dispense the morning after pill and all other birth control drugs without question or delay, suffered a second defeat, this time in appellate court. In 2011 the trial court had found that the law was invalid because it targeted a specific group, and that Illinois law prohibits discrimination in licensing those who cannot provide a particular service due to religious beliefs.
This lawsuit, which passed its second review, was the one involving pharmacy owners, Luke VanderBleek and Glenn Kosirog. Another lawsuit, which ended in favor of conscientious objectors, involved employee pharmacists in the same state.
The Appellate court opinion is available HERE.
VanderBleek and Kosirog have been represented since 2005 by attorneys of the ACLJ and the Becket Fund.

Pharmacy Owners Prevail in Court Decision on Blagojevich Edict

~ Pharmer

Illinois Pharmacy Owners have emerged victorious after six years of litigation against  the state of  Illinois edict compelling them to dispense the morning after pill.

This comes shortly after the approval of a new morning after pill, Ella, which is an analog of RU486, mifepristone.

Francis J Manion of the ACLJ, and Mark Rienzi, of Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law  teamed up as counsel to the pharmacy owners.

Deposed Governor Blagojevich’s original order addressing individual pharmacists had previously been overturned.

Judge Belz  noted that the government had made no effort to advance it’s supposed interest in supplying morning after pills to women prior to April 2010, and had specifically targeted pharmacists of conscience and their religious beliefs.

Pharmacists for Life International has stored the original letter from Blagojevich which threatened pharmacists  with loss of their license to practice if they did not dispense the morning after pill and all other  hormonal birth control products and contraceptives upon demand.

The coverage in the Chicago Tribune is very brief, does not mention the newest morning after pill, and does not mention that the original order to the pharmacists was for them to dispense all drugs labeled as “contraceptives” though most are misbranded.  It does mention an expected  (hoped for) appeal to the case.