Friday, November 09, 2007
A Small, Temporary Victory for the Freedom of Conscience [David Freddoso]
A federal judge in Washington State suspended a state law yesterday that forces pharmacists to sell the abortifacient "morning-after pill."
That anyone should be forced by the government to sell anything — even aspirin — seems an extremely difficult argument to make. But this sort of compulsion is required in order to drive all believing Christians out of the medical professions, and this is the goal of some liberals. Recall Mayor Michael Bloomberg's push to make all medical students at New York City hospitals perform abortions as part of their training — it's nothing short of a filter for certain kinds of people.
The push to guarantee continued unlimited legal abortion and "reproductive rights" comes only at the expense of property rights and freedom of conscience (or in this case both). If you don't care about this issue now, you should think again. The liberal legislators who are depriving medical professionals' rights of conscience now with respect to abortion and contraception may be back for your business or your profession later in some other form.
Update — A reader sends this example:
If I thought double-parking should be legalized, I wouldn't choose to be a traffic cop (which I'm not, but it's an easy example).
In a way, I think this comment makes my point. But it's also a bad example: parking is a convention. Private property and freedom of commerce are God-given rights recognized in our founding documents.
We're nibbling at these rights around the edges. Think about this: When we legalize assisted suicide — like Plan B a "medical treatment" that is not intended to cure any disease — we might already have the laws in place to force pharmacists to sell the lethal drugs. How would you like to be the first pharmacist put out of business for refusing to take part in someone's suicide?
11/09 10:30 AM
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