Conscientious Objectors

If the Seattle Post-Intelligencer accurately represents the attitudes of Washington's governing elite, then not all conscientious objectors are created equal. Joining hands with Governor Christina Gregoire and the state's Democratic leadership, the PI condemned a decision by the state's Board of Pharmacy that granted individual pharmacists the right to "refuse and refer" when a patron comes into the drugstore seeking to purchase the so-called, "morning after pill." Under that ruling, a pharmacist who finds abortion morally repugnant would be permitted to refuse to supply the pill, provided that he or she directs the woman to a pharmacist willing to fill the request.
The PI sneered that the notion that a pharmacist should be permitted to raise his personal "beliefs" (the paper's quotations) above the welfare of the patient.
Neither the PI or the state's ruling party seems to consider that the pharmacist beliefs might have grown out of concern for the smaller and more helpless patient who's existence or value west side elitists seem unwilling to even acknowledge - the unborn baby whom the woman seeks to flush away.
Governor Gregoire was equally dismissive of the concept of beliefs. "They made a mistake. It's time that it's corrected," the governor said at a news conference where she promised to, "help them [the pharmacy board] get the right answer."
And, "If they don't get the right answer, I suspect they will find that the Legislature will take it upon themselves (sic)," she threatened.
One tool available to help her convince the board of the error of its ways is the dismissal of the entire Pharmacy Board. Because the members were never formally confirmed by the legislature, she is within her power to purge them. She could also issue an executive order. But, she'd rather not.
"I don't want this to be done like we're in a dictatorship," she said, exhibiting an immunity to irony that would cause a blush to rise on Marie Antoinette's cheeks.
Now, it's not as though the woman seeking to abort her pregnancy would be forced to carry the child to full term. Respecting the pharmacist's beliefs would only force upon her the very small inconvenience of driving down the street to the next drug store to get her pills.
Recognizing the perils that this excess freedom of conscience might represent, state senator Karen Keiser, D-Kent, is already planning legislation taking such freedom away.
This sort of forced obedience to the cult of abortion is really nothing new. Buried in Hillary Clinton's catastrophic 1994 health care plan, was a scheme to force all medical schools to teach abortion. Many schools, particularly those owned by the Catholic or Mormon churches, had declined to include the procedure in their curricula. Any student planning to make a career in an abortion mill would simply have to choose another college to enroll in. That was an intolerable expression of conscience back then as well that Hillary Care aimed to cure.
On the other hand, we have another conscientious objector making news lately and as yet he has not had to endure the same vitriol or threats as have pharmacists of conscience. U.S. Army lieutenant Ehren Watada, stationed at Fort Lewis and scheduled for deployment to Iraq later his month, has declared that he won't go. Borrowing heavily from Democratic Party talking points he questioned the war's legality, accused the president of lying and complained that he had been "betrayed."
Apparently the Seattle PI holds lieutenant Watada's beliefs in somewhat higher regard than pharmacists' as the paper composed a sympathetic article reporting his insubordination. The PI called his defiance of orders "dissent" and airbrushed out of the story the fact that he entered the Army and Officer Candidate School after the war had already started in 2003. This unbiased clarion also posted a net video of his speech on its website and added links to the peacenik organization that has taken the lieutenant under its protection. As of yet, the PI has not condemned Watada or those who enable him.
Pharmacists are permitted to refuse to provide over the counter abortions only if they provide an alternative, creating nothing more than minor inconvenience. But somebody will be forced to take lieutenant Watada's place. Watada's supposedly conscientious objections are a genuine betrayal and somebody will have to pay a greater price than having to find another drug store.