Christian medical groups defend pharmacists in conscience court case

CHRISTIAN LEGAL SOCIETY NEWS RELEASE
November 20, 2012 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:  Kim Colby, Senior Counsel, (703) 894-1087

CHRISTIAN MEDICAL GROUPS FILE BRIEF

SUPPORTING WASHINGTON STATE PHARMACISTS’ CONSCIENCE RIGHTS

WASHINGTON, DC – Today Christian medical professionals filed a brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to defend pharmacists against a regulation that would force Washington State pharmacists to dispense abortion-inducing drugs despite their religious and moral convictions.  “At a time when there is a critical shortage of pharmacists, a regulation that forces pharmacists to choose between their jobs and their religious beliefs needlessly threatens the health care of all citizens of Washington State,” explained Kim Colby, Senior Counsel for Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom.

In February 2012, a federal district court declared Washington State’s regulation unconstitutional because it violated the pharmacists’ federal right to freely exercise their religion.  The regulation unconstitutionally targets pharmacists’ religious objections to dispensing abortifacients, even though any pharmacist may refuse to dispense any drug for various nonreligious reasons.  Singling out religious beliefs for prohibition, while leaving non-religious beliefs unrestricted, is unconstitutional.  The state appealed the district court decision. The brief filed today urges the Ninth Circuit to affirm the district court’s liberty-respecting decision. 

In a national survey, over nine in ten (91%) of faith-based physicians indicated, "I would rather stop practicing medicine altogether than be forced to violate my conscience." Protecting faith-based health care professionals should be a top-priority in order to insure health care access for millions of Americans --especially the poor and medically underserved patients who are most likely to count on faith-based health care.

The friend-of-the-court brief was joined by Christian Medical Association, American Association of ProLife Obstetricians & Gynecologists, Catholic Medical Association, Association of American Physicians & Surgeons, and Christian Pharmacists Fellowship International.  The brief was prepared by attorneys at the Bioethics Defense Fund and the Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom.

The Christian Legal Society is a nationwide association of Christian attorneys, law students, and law professors.   

Election 2012 reflects America's changing values landscape

"Democracy in a nation of 300 million can be noisy and messy and complicated. We have our own opinions. Each of us has deeply held beliefs." - President Barack Obama, acceptance speech Nov. 6, 2012

When the smoke cleared from the landmark Nov. 6 election shoot-out, the shifting opinions and deeply held beliefs of Americans became clearer:

·       Americans reelected Barack Obama, whose policy decisions, appointments and speeches have marked him as the most pro-abortion president in history.

·       Despite national law to the contrary, Colorado, California and Washington legalized the "recreational" use (i.e., getting stoned) and sale of marijuana, setting up a potential clash of state and federal governments.

·       After 32 other states had rejected the notion, Maine and Maryland became the first states where voters legalized same-sex marriage, and Minnesota rejected a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

·       Massachusetts voters only narrowly rejected a proposal to legalize assisted suicide, preventing the state from joining Washington and Oregon in sanctioning medical killing via ballot initiative.

Big government proponents basically beat small government advocates. Democrats largely bested Republicans by retaining control of the White House, federal agencies and foreign affairs while also keeping their judge-confirming, treaty-ratifying, House bill-blocking majority in the Senate. Republicans retained control of the House of Representatives. The partisan combination potentially sets up more Congressional gridlock, since pragmatic compromise seems unlikely as Democrats continue to slant toward the left and Republicans to the right ideological wings of their constituencies.

The election results reflect the changing American values landscape underscored recently by a Pew survey (you can read my analysis) indicating a sharp rise in citizens who do not claim or seek any religious affiliation. The results also reflect the political clout of unions, the homosexual community and women focused on "reproductive rights." While many evangelicals and Catholics put aside theological concerns regarding Mitt Romney's Mormon religion and focused on religious liberty and life issues, their votes proved insufficient to help the challenger win key battleground states.

Losing presidential candidate Mitt Romney noted in his concession speech,

"We look to our teachers and professors, we count on you not just to teach, but to inspire our children with a passion for learning and discovery. We look to our pastors and priests and rabbis and counselors of all kinds to testify of the enduring principles upon which our society is built: honesty, charity, integrity and family. We look to our parents, for in the final analysis everything depends on the success of our homes."

Gov. Romney hit upon a key to our future as a nation when he looked past politics to the real culture-changers--parents, pastors and school teachers. To that traditional list I would add musicians, movie makers, athletes, artists, philosophers, academics, journalists, doctors and scientists. Add in also everyone who influences peers by tweeting, posting on Facebook and circulating YouTube videos.

If we Christians are to influence our culture with biblical values, we must first infiltrate these cultural centers of influence. Elections, laws and policies matter greatly, but we can't reach our nation by politics alone; we must also influence our culture. One of the main reasons that this organization keeps an office in Washington, DC is to educate our leaders and our nation with biblical values.

In influencing our culture, we must practice what we preach. Perhaps we Christians sometimes have relied too heavily and too soon on our words when the world first wants to see our works.

Christian influence in America may continue to decline until our nation experiences a spiritual revival that leads to cultural renewal. Our job is to pray fervently and work ceaselessly toward that end. Scripture assures us that God has always been eager for such revival:

"[If] My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. --2 Chronicles 7:14

Besides humility, prayer and penitence, we can also help lay the groundwork for such revival by following the command of Jesus:

"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. --Matt 5:16

Finally, we can faithful pray for all in authority:

"…I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." --1 Tim 2:1-4

"It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words."

All the number-crunching, fact-checking research of the candidates' assertions about taxes, oil permits and women's pay in the last presidential debate somehow missed a blatant Orwellian newspeak statement by the President.

Regarding his coercive scheme for the government to mandate free contraceptives on demand nationwide, President Obama said, "You know a major difference in this campaign is that Governor Romney feels comfortable having politicians in Washington decide the health care choices that women are making. I think that's a mistake. In my health care bill, I said insurance companies need to provide contraceptive coverage to everybody who is insured."[1]

Actually, Mr. Obama--a "politician in Washington"--decided for women that they will no longer have a health care choice regarding contraception. The government is forcing women morally opposed to contraceptives to carry the coverage. The government is forcing parents to give up their authority to decide whether their children will receive contraceptives. And the government is forcing religious organizations morally opposed to contraceptives to cover them in their insurance plans--or pay draconian fines that threaten to cut vital services to those they serve.

If such government coercion, totalitarianism and punishment is the President's idea of choice, then freedom is slavery. As George Orwell's 1984 character Syme, a Research Department worker, gushed, "It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words."

---

[1] Presidential debate transcript, questions, Oct. 16, 2012 http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1012/82484.html?hp=t1_b1

Christians in public policy: What to make of a startling new survey

A startling new survey report, “Nones”on the Rise, by the Pew Research Center, reveals that the number of Americans who decline to identify with any religion is quickly escalating. From the report:

One-fifth of the U.S. public – and a third of adults under 30 – are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentages ever in Pew Research Center polling.
In the last five years alone, the unaffiliated have increased from just over 15 percent to just under 20 percent of all U.S. adults. Their ranks now include more than 13 million self-described atheists and agnostics (nearly 6 percent of the U.S. public), as well as nearly 33 million people who say they have no particular religious affiliation (14 percent).
This large and growing group of Americans is less religious than the public at large on many conventional measures, including frequency of attendance at religious services and the degree of importance they attach to religion in their lives.
These findings represent a continuation of long-term trends.The religiously unaffiliated population is less convinced that religious institutions help protect morality; just half say this, considerably lower than the share of the general public that views churches and other religious organizations as defenders of morality. Overwhelmingly, they think that religious organizations are too concerned with money and power, too focused on rules and too involved in politics.

I've prepared an analysis of and strategies to respond to this poll's findings, which represent a wake-up call to Christians nationwide. We must not, however, conclude on the basis of this poll that Christians should get out of public policy.

First, many of those who disapprove of advancing Christian values through public policy--regarding homosexuality, abortion and premarital sex, for example--will naturally want Christians to get out of politics, so they themselves can prevail politically. Christian involvement in politics for such people is not somehow preventing them from embracing Christ; it is preventing them from pursuing their own ideological political agenda and personal values.

Second, if Christians were to leave public policy to those who do not share our faith values on the sanctity of life, defending the defenseless and caring for the poor, what kind of laws and policies do you think would result? Imagine where this nation would be today without the historical and continuing political influence of the faith community on issues such as slavery, abortion, civil rights, assisted suicide and religious liberty.

The first two chapters of the book of Romans teach us that when people defy God as revealed in nature and in their consciences, by making evil choices counter to God's principles, they end up with a depraved mind and a hardened heart. Consider that the reverse is also true: When individuals act in accordance with God's revelation through nature and their consciences, by making good choices consistent with His principles, they maintain an open mind and a softened heart toward God. They also experience God's principles working in their lives, which can lead them to embrace His fuller revelation through Scripture and the Good News of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Therefore, when followers of Christ help individuals (through relationships and counseling) and our society (through public policy) to make choices consistent with God's principles, we are actually participating in evangelism. We Christians participate in public policy--by voting, advocating politically and voicing views in the public square--not because we think that laws consistent with Christian principles will save people spiritually, but because we realize that such laws can help keep minds and hearts headed in God's direction, to the One who can save.

Action

View PowerPoint analysis of and strategies to respond to this poll's findings

Register to vote

Contact lawmakers 

Track bills

Nobel Prize given for ethical--not embryonic--stem cell research

Ethical alternatives to embryo-destroying stem cell research now appear to be winning the day, despite billions of dollars spent on embryonic stem cell research. 
We can thank intrepid scientists and courageous ethicists who dared to challenge the mantra of the scientific and liberal communities, which held that only embryonic stem cells offered the full range of possibilities for research and potential therapies.
At the December 3, 2004 meeting of the President's Council on Bioethics, Council Member Dr. William Hurlbut presented one of the first proposals challenging this mantra, offering the alternative of "Altered Nuclear Transfer." In May 2005, the Council published a white paper entitled, Alternative Sources of Pluripotent Stem Cells, in which Chairman Dr. Leon Kass noted,

Much of the ethical controversy over stem cells derives from the fact that, until now, the only way to obtain human pluripotent stem cell lines has been to derive them from living human embryos by a process that necessarily destroys the embryos. If a way could be found to derive such stem cell lines without creating and destroying human embryos, a good deal of that ethical controversy would subside.

Such writings may have encouraged objective scientists to explore options challenging their colleague's near-religious devotion to embryonic stem cell research. In December 2007, the New York Times--of all papers--published the following story:

Dr. [Shinya] Yamanaka was an assistant professor of pharmacology doing research involving embryonic stem cells when he made the social call to the clinic about eight years ago. At the friend’s invitation, he looked down the microscope at one of the human embryos stored at the clinic. The glimpse changed his scientific career.

“When I saw the embryo, I suddenly realized there was such a small difference between it and my daughters,” said Dr. Yamanaka, 45, a father of two and now a professor at the Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences at Kyoto University. “I thought, we can’t keep destroying embryos for our research. There must be another way.”

This week, the Nobel Foundation--of all organizations--awarded Dr. Yamanaka a Nobel Prize for his work on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), writing the following:

Shinya Yamanaka discovered ... in 2006, how intact mature cells in mice could be reprogrammed to become immature stem cells. Surprisingly, by introducing only a few genes, he could reprogram mature cells to become pluripotent stem cells, i.e. immature cells that are able to develop into all types of cells in the body. These groundbreaking discoveries have completely changed our view of the development and cellular specialisation. We now understand that the mature cell does not have to be confined forever to its specialised state. Textbooks have been rewritten and new research fields have been established. By reprogramming human cells, scientists have created new opportunities to study diseases and develop methods for diagnosis and therapy. 

Not long ago, many scientists, politicians and the media used their support for unethical embryonic stem cell research as a wedge issue, proclaiming that soon patients would be hopping out of their wheelchairs if only the Luddites who insisted on ethical alternative research would get out of the way.
Tragically, every dollar spent on embryonic stem cell research diverts critically needed funds away from ethical alternatives, including iPS cells and long-proven adult stem cell research, which is already providing real therapies for real patients.
Not too long ago, many scientists believed in God and saw their mission as discovering and exploring God's design in the natural world, in a way that corresponded with His ethical principles as prescribed in Scripture. Perhaps Dr. Yamanaka's success will encourage a revival of such a perspective, and we can once again begin to trust science to explore--not exploit--the natural order.