The Illinois Attorney General is appealing a decision by a judge this week that Illinois pharmacists can't be forced to dispense emergency contraception, according to a Chicago Tribune article.

"We are disappointed by the Court’s ruling permitting not only individual pharmacists, but also commercial pharmacies, to refuse to provide FDA approved medications, including contraception," said Colleen Connell, ACLU of Illinois Executive Director.

"The Court’s ruling fails to account for the important constitutional rights at issue when women are denied access to reproductive health care and medication. It also allows individual religious views to dictate the kind of medication available to the citizens of Illinois in commercial pharmacies. We are grateful that the Illinois Attorney General is considering an appeal and look forward to the opportunity to participate in that process."

Pharmacists Luke VanderBleek and Glenn Kosirog and the three drug stores they operate sued over the 2005 rule imposed by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. A circuit court originally dismissed the claim, but the state Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that a court must hear it.

Plan B emergency contraception contains a high dose of birth control pills and can be used to prevent pregnancy if taken within three days of unprotected sex by blocking ovulation or fertilization. Critics of the contraceptive say it is the equivalent of an abortion pill because it can prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus. The pharmacists object to dispensing the pill on religious grounds.

In January 2008, the ACLU of Illinois filed an amicus brief urging the court to reject plaintiffs’ challenge to the rule. We argued that plaintiffs’ expansive reading of the Health Care Right of Conscience Act as providing absolute protection for the conscience objections of health care workers, despite the impact such refusals would have on women seeking to access constitutionally-protected health care, was incorrect and inappropriate. In December 2008, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the claims were ripe and, without reaching the merits of the case, sent the matter back to the circuit court for further litigation.

According to the Tribune article, after a nearly six-year struggle, Sangamon County Circuit Judge John Belz said requiring pharmacists to sell the so-called morning-after pill violates state right-of-conscience law and the First Amendment.

We have revised the ACLU of Illinois Privacy Policy because we want to clarify and provide more information about our collection, use and protection of information collected on this website, particularly as technology has evolved. In addition to clarifying our collection practices, the revisions include a description of our use of Short-Term Cookies.

Read our updated Privacy Policy and our User Agreement.

The American Civil Liberties Union, Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) and U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal were in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. today urging the court to uphold a lower court ruling that patents on two human genes are illegal.

"The human gene is a product of nature and no more patentable than a human kidney,” said Chris Hansen, staff attorney with the ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project who argued on behalf of the plaintiffs today. “The district court ruling striking down patents on human genes was a victory for the free flow of ideas and information, and could lead to important medical and scientific advances. The appeals court should uphold that ruling.”

The ACLU and PUBPAT brought a lawsuit in May 2009 against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Myriad Genetics and the University of Utah Research Foundation, which hold the patents on two human genes related to hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, BRCA1 and BRCA2. The lawsuit charges that the patents restrict both scientific research and patients' access to medical care, and that patents on human genes are illegal because genes are "products of nature." The groups brought the case on behalf of breast cancer and women's health groups, individual women, geneticists and scientific associations representing approximately 150,000 researchers, pathologists and laboratory professionals.

Read the full press release.
Read more about the case.