SEATTLE - The American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood and the Northwest Women's Law Center are appealing a federal judge's ruling.

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Two pharmacists and a drugstore owner claim in a lawsuit that the state's birth-control sales rules violated their civil rights.

The ruling says that Washington state pharmacies don't have to sell "morning-after" birth control pills if their pharmacists have moral objections.

A federal court judge in Tacoma issued an injunction last month preventing the state from enforcing a rule that pharmacies make the drug available.

The organizations appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this week, saying the ruling misconstrues legal precedent, and they asked the judge to stay the injunction while the appeal pends.

Sold as "Plan B," the drug can dramatically lower the risk of pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. It is a high dose of a drug found in many regular birth-control pills. Plan B's manufacturer, Barr Pharmaceuticals, got approval last year to sell the drug over-the-counter. People 18 and older can buy it without prescription in a pharmacy.