Republican House lawmakers introduced a bill Sept. 14 intended to offer sweeping protection to pharmacists who refuse to sell or fill prescriptions for drugs that can cause an abortion.
The Pharmacist Conscience Protection Act aims to reverse White House guidance set forth in mid-July that clarified that denying to offer reproductive health products is illegal because it is a form of "sex discrimination," according to HHS.
Physicians have been cast to the forefront of post-Roe news, from a pharmacist refusing to fill a prescription for an emergency contraceptive to CVS firing a nurse practitioner who would not sell abortion drugs.
The proposed legislation calls for the government to not "discriminate against a specified health care provider [who] does not or declines to store or fill a prescription, or make a referral, for a drug that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration to cause an abortion or that the specified healthcare provider in good faith believes may be used to cause an abortion."
Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., who owned a pharmacy for more than 30 years, introduced the bill alongside 26 House Republican co-sponsors.
The bill is not likely to pass, according to Politico.