PIERRE - A legislative committee approved a measure that would prevent South Dakota pharmacists from using abortion laws to justify refusing to fill birth-control prescriptions.

Opponents of the measure, including a pharmacists' association, say it would force pharmacists to prescribe birth control.

The Senate Health and Human Services Committed voted 4-3 to send the bill to the full Senate with a "do pass" recommendation.

SB164 would recognize "the right of consenting individuals to obtain and use safe and effective methods of contraception without interference of government entities."

The bill also says pharmacists can't justify their refusal by referring to a state law that allows health-care workers to decline to participate in abortions.

Bob Riter, a lobbyist for the South Dakota Pharmacists Association, said the bill "in effect emasculates the conscience clause that pharmacists are able to practice under currently in South Dakota."

Sen. Ed Olson, R-Mitchell, the sponsor of the bill, said its only purpose was to prevent unwanted pregnancies. He said SB164 would not "force or mandate anybody to do anything."

Rather, Olson said, "It separates out birth control from the abortion statutes."

Kate Looby, director of Planned Parenthood in South Dakota, said 62 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 44 use birth control, and 95 to 98 percent of women in that age group "who have ever had sex" had used birth control at least once.

"Clearly, contraception is basic health care for women," Looby said.

Rita Houglum of the South Dakota Eagle Forum opposed the bill, in particular for safeguarding the "rights" of consenting individuals to birth control. She said the bill could include children under 18, who currently do not have the right to obtain contraceptives.

Lobbyists for the Catholic Archdiocese of Sioux Falls and the South Dakota Family Policy Council also opposed the bill.

Looby, who argued that accessible birth control actually reduces abortions, said some of the same groups that sought an abortion ban in South Dakota now oppose SB164.

Sen. Tom Katus, D-Rapid City, cited the lone pharmacist in Broadus, Mont., who refused to fill birth-control prescription. Katus said women in isolated, rural South Dakota communities also find themselves without easy access to those prescriptions.

Riter said he was unaware of any such cases in South Dakota, and he said women could get prescriptions online or at other pharmacies.

Committee Chairman Sen. Tom Hansen, R-Huron, said, "I see this bill as detrimental to pharmacists."

Olson said, "I don't want any interference with the ability of my female loved ones to get a legally prescribed prescription."

Katus and Sen. Theresa Two Bulls, D-Pine Ridge, voted with the majority of the committee to recommend approval of the bill.

Contact Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or at bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.com