An appeal court in Spain found that a pharmacy was not obliged to follow the law and sell an emergency contraceptive on demand.
In 2008 a pharmacy in Andalusia was fined €3,000 by the local health authority for not selling morning-after pills or condoms.
The law required pharmacies to provide both, with no prescription required.
But now the country’s constitutional court has overturned that decision, giving pharmacies the right to refuse to sell morning-after pills.
The court deemed that the pharmacist’s right to “ideological freedom” had been violated. The owners in question were registered officially as “conscientious objectors” in matters where they perceived a conflict between the law and their own beliefs.
In the eyes of the court, a legal obligation on this vendor to sell the pill clashed “with the concept advocated (by the pharmacist) to the right to life.”
But the court said the pharmacy could not refuse to sell condoms as there was “no conflict of conscience with constitutional relevance”.
The decision was not unanimous, and several magistrates disagreed with the ruling.
The question of abortion has been a topic of intense debate recently. In 2010, the Socialist government changed the law to allow abortion until the 14th week of pregnancy.
Last year the current conservative government proposed allowing terminations only in cases of rape or if the mother’s health was endangered. However, the bill was withdrawn following political and social opposition.
