In most stories about conscience clauses and nurses, the nurse involved is the one appealing to conscience-clause legislation to justify non-participation in some medical procedure.
But that’s not always the case.
See this story, from CNBC: Idaho board: No action in Walgreens complaint
The Idaho Board of Pharmacy says it has no basis to start proceedings against Walgreen Co. in a complaint that alleged one of the drug store chain’s pharmacists in Nampa improperly refused to fill a prescription.
A nurse practitioner from Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest contended the pharmacist abused the state’s 2010 conscience law in November after balking at filling a prescription for a drug that helps control bleeding after childbirth or abortions….
This I think is a little-discussed aspect of “conscience clauses” or “conscience laws”: they can be a focal point for disagreement between members of different professions. Also, while conscience clauses may sometimes help nurses avoid participation in procedures that go against deeply-held values, in other cases such clauses are going to frustrate nurses’ attempts to help patients obtain the services of other health professionals.
The Nursing Ethics Blog 