WAUSAU, Wis. -- A state appeals court has upheld sanctions against a pharmacist who refused to dispense birth control pills to a college student and wouldn't transfer her prescription elsewhere.

The 3rd District Court of Appeals said the punishment that the state Pharmacy Examining Board handed down against pharmacist Neil Noesen did not violate any of his state constitutional rights.

Court records said Noesen was working as a substitute pharmacist at a Menomonie Kmart in 2002 when a University of Wisconsin-Stout student came in to get birth control pills.

The St. Paul, Minn., man told state regulators he is a devout Roman Catholic and he refused to refill the prescription or release it to another pharmacy because he didn't want to commit a sin.