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MP wants 'conscience clause' for pharmacists

PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle 18.04.2012 08:48
An MP from the ruling Civic Platform (PO) wants a 'conscience clause' put in Poland's pharmaceutical law allowing chemists to refuse to sell birth control pills if it goes against their conscience or religious beliefs.

MP
MP Jacek Zalek: photo - jacekzalek.pl

“Pharmacists are discriminated against in relation to doctors or nurses, who can refuse to prescribe certain drugs,” MP Jacek Żalek, from the conservative wing of Civic Platform told the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

Żalek says the idea for the change in law came from the Catholic Pharmacists Association (SFK).

“We would like the legitimacy, as have doctors, who can refuse to perform abortions or prescribe contraception,” Małgorzata Prusak from the SFK told the TOK FM radio station.

Under the proposed bill, pharmacists could refuse to sell the 'morning after' pill or, she says, sell anything to customers that could “assist suicide or euthanasia”.

Wanda Nowicka, a deputy speaker of parliament and MP for the liberal Palikot Movement, and activist in the pro-choice Federation for Women and Family Planning, says that a 'conscience clause' for pharmacists would be a violation of a patient's human rights decide on their own procreation.

If pharmacists don't want to sell drugs prescribed to patients then they should “change profession”, she says.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk may not be pleased by the initiative of conservative MPs like Jacek Żalek, fearing the ideological differences in his centre-right Civic Platform – which contains both social conservatives and liberals – will open up again as it did over the issue of state funding for IVF treatment.

Conservatives in the party got a boost after last October's general election when Jaroslaw Gowin – a socially conservative MP from Krakow – was appointed as justice minister. (pg)

tags: politics
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