You know a society’s liberal credentials are in trouble when secularists look and sound more reactionary than those conservative Catholics.

By way of example, Susie O’Brien declares war on liberalism’s most hallowed freedom in today’s Herald Sun:

A recent Monash University survey shows one in five pharmacists think it’s reasonable for their religious beliefs to influence their decision to provide the pill.

Even the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia supports the right of individual pharmacists to dispense medicine in line with their personal morals, and not just their professional responsibilities.

Quite frankly, this is outrageous. Pharmacists should be bound by their professional codes of conduct and act in accordance with the law, and not in line with their own personal beliefs.

O’Brien then pursues something of a red herring in her arguments against moralising conservatives imposing their views. She completely ignores the elephant in the room. It’s called freedom of conscience.