Contact: John Mallon, 405-720-2575, johnmallon@cox.net, Human Life International

FRONT ROYAL, Virginia, Nov. 6 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, STL, president of Human Life International, (HLI) today said, "When a state rejects the protection of individual consciences, that state loses its soul."

Father Euteneuer was commenting on a New Jersey law sponsored by state Senator Joseph Vitale and signed into law by Governor Jon Corzine that effectively forces pharmacists in that state to violate their consciences by filling prescriptions for abortifacient—abortion-causing—contraception.

"In a free society, the rights of conscience are recognized. When the state abrogates those rights forcing citizens to violate their consciences as a condition for employment, then that state is no longer a free society," said Father Euteneuer. "This is not yet another action by government in America leading to tyranny, it is tyranny. Governor Corzine and Senator Vitale are no longer acting as American statesmen but as representatives of the Culture of Death, joining officials in eleven other states with this evil law."

Pope Benedict XVI told a group of pharmacists as recently as October 29 that they must avoid "anaesthetizing consciences," and he emphasized that drugs should be used to help human beings, not to take the life of unborn children or the elderly.

Father Euteneuer continued, "This new precedent is a call for all Americans, especially Catholics and others who live by firm moral and religious principles, to take a hard look at what is happening in our country as the national elections approach."

"The day has come" Father Euteneuer said, "when the corner pharmacist, whom we trust and expect to be moral, can lose his or her job and even go to jail for refusing to dispense a pill that can kill a baby."