Polish pharmacist who refused prescription for morning-after pill has case against her discontinued

A pharmacist who refused to fulfil a prescription for the morning-after pill due to her beliefs has seen the case against her discontinued by a court, which found her act caused “negligible social harm”.

However, the conservative legal organisation representing her says it has issued a further appeal, seeking for the pharmacist to be fully exonerated rather than simply not punished.

Since a change in the law by the conservative government in 2017, Poland has been one of two countries in the European Union – the other being Hungary – that requires women to obtain a prescription before receiving emergency contraception.

However, in February 2021, a pharmacist in the city of Kraków refused to fulfil such a prescription, citing the so-called “conscience clause” that allows medics in Poland to refrain from providing medical services that are against their moral or religious beliefs. She argued the pill “could pose a threat to an unborn child”.

While the conscience clause can be invoked by doctors, nurses and midwives, it is generally not seen to apply to pharmacists. After the patient filed a complaint, the pharmacist was issued with a reprimand by the district pharmaceutical court in Kraków.

But she appealed against that decision, supported by Ordo Iuris, a prominent conservative legal group, which argued that the woman was not given a proper opportunity to defend herself and that pharmacists also have a constitutional right to invoke the conscience clause.

That appeal resulted in the Supreme Pharmaceutical Court quashing the original ruling and ordering the lower court to reconsider the case. It has now done so, deciding that the case should be discontinued after finding that the social harm caused by the pharmacist’s decision was negligible.

“In this particular case, no good of the wronged party was violated, no harm was caused to her, nor was there any threat of such harm,” said the court in its justification, as quoted by Ordo Iuris.

Lawyers from the group, however, are still not satisfied with the ruling and say they have filed a further appeal against it. They want the pharmacist to be fully exonerated rather than just see her case discontinued because she was deemed not to have caused social harm.

They said that refusing to sell emergency contraceptives cannot be considered a breach of pharmaceutical law and that it is in line with constitutionally guaranteed freedom of conscience.

The group also quoted a paragraph in the pharmaceutical law that allows pharmacists to refuse to sell medicinal products if there is a suspicion that they may be used for a non-medical purpose.

“The termination of the life of a human embryo regardless of its stage of development – as well as its prevention – is not a medical objective,” Ordo Iuris says.

The pill in question, EllaOne – a brand name for the medication ulipristal acetate – works by preventing fertilisation if taken shortly after sexual intercourse rather than by terminating a pregnancy.

Last week, The Left (Lewica), Poland’s second-largest opposition group, submitted a bill to reintroduce prescription-free emergency contraceptives, arguing that if the law would reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions and increase the safety of Polish women.

The largest opposition party, the centrist Civic Platform, has also called for prescription-free access to the morning-after pill to be restored, with its leader, Donald Tusk, calling contraception a “fundamental right“.

Main image credit: Tbel Abuseridze / Unsplash 

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.