Walgreens: Leave your beliefs at
the door
Pharmacist's dismissal over sales of
abortifacients challenged
Religious liberty law firm Thomas More
Society has filed a federal lawsuit in Tennessee
on behalf of former Walgreens pharmacist Philip Hall, alleging Hall was
unfairly fired because his faith would not permit him to sell the Plan B
morning-after pill over the counter.
Hall worked for the Jamestown, Tenn.,
location for six years prior to his August 2013 termination. His attorneys say
the store permitted him to opt out of filling prescriptions for abortifacients
Ella or Plan B when they were prescription drugs.
Hall, a Baptist, said he couldn’t fill
those prescriptions because, “they can prevent a fertilized egg from implanting
in the uterus.”
That arrangement apparently changed last
year when the Food and Drug Administration allowed
Plan B to be sold over the counter. Hall’s attorneys say that at an employee
meeting on the change, his supervisors asked him what he would do if he was
asked about the drug.
Believing the previous procedures applied,
Hall said he would refer the sale to another cashier.
As a result, he was fired.
Walgreens spokesman James Graham says he
cannot comment on pending litigation, but, “We can tell you that Walgreens
company policy allows pharmacists and other employees to step away from
completing a transaction to which they have a moral objection. Our policy also
requires the employee to refer the transaction to another employee or manager
on duty who will complete the customer’s request.”
Thomas More Society attorney Jocelyn Floyd
is representing Hall in his federal lawsuit and she says that Hall’s
constitutional rights have been violated.
Floyd says that the law recognizes an
enormous list of reasons people can lodge religious objections, but she says
there are limits. The law requires the employer make a “reasonable accommodation,”
a process that begins with the employee.
“If someone has a religious objection,
they have to go to their employer and say they can’t do something. In this case
it’s selling the morning after pill for religious reasons. The employer is
required to make what is called the reasonable accommodation.
“In this case, this would require the
store to allow Dr. Hall the opportunity to have another cashier process the
sale. That is a reasonable accommodation. Now that it is over the counter it
can be any cashier,” Floyd said.
She also says that the over-the-counter
status of Plan B makes it easier for the store to accommodate Hall’s beliefs.
“Before, when it was a prescription drug,
the dispensing of the drug and the sale had to be done by another pharmacist.
Now it can be any cashier and that means that finding another cashier doesn’t
place an undue burden on the store.
“It might be a slight hassle and it can be
a little annoying to have to find another cashier, but it is not an undue
burden. If he believed his religious beliefs were such that he couldn’t even
work in the store and that the company would have to stop selling the product
altogether, that would be an undue burden,” Floyd said.
Floyd says the suit is best pursued in federal
court because the decision to terminate Hall was made at the corporate level.
“This is a company action; this is
Walgreens itself. When you have the amount of money that is at issue here and
the fact that we’re looking at both state and federal law, then it’s better in
federal court,” Floyd said.
Floyd also believes that this case should
become a precedent setting case because of the subject matter.
“Obviously we hope that this case will set
a precedent, that it will set a precedent both in the court and in the society,
letting the society know that this is a clear violation of state and federal
law and that they (the company) can’t do that. Hopefully other medical and
pharmaceutical professionals will be able to avoid this situation altogether by
getting their religious beliefs respected,” Floyd said.
The results of the termination included,
according to the plaintiffs, a denial of unemployment benefits by Walgreens,
premature loss of health insurance, three months of unemployment while hunting
for work, having to spend retirement savings to pay bills, and getting new
employment with a commute of 60 miles and at lower pay.
The action asks “Walgreens to pay him
(Hall) everything he lost as a result of them firing him unjustly,” Floyd said.
Food and Drug Administration
Margaret
A. Hamburg is the commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, and the VP for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank).
Note: Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank)
was a funder for the Nuclear Threat Initiative
(think tank).
Donald Kennedy
was a trustee at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace (think tank), and the commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Jessica Tuchman Mathews
is a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative
(think tank), the president of the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank), a director at the
American Friends of Bilderberg
(think tank), was an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview
with Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for
population control by involving the United States in war)
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
George Soros
is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations,
and was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open
Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and
the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Mark
B. McClellan was a senior fellow at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and a commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Margaret
A. Hamburg is the VP for the Nuclear Threat Initiative
(think tank), the commissioner for the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration, and her father is David A.
Hamburg.
David A.
Hamburg is Margaret A. Hamburg’s father, an adviser
for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank),
and the president emeritus for the Carnegie Corporation of
New York.
Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank)
was a funder for the Nuclear Threat Initiative
(think tank).
Nafis Sadik
is a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative
(think tank), and was an executive director for the United Nations Population Fund.
Andrew
Carnegie was the founder of the Carnegie Corporation of
New York, and the founder of the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank).
German
Marshall Fund of the United States was a funder for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank).
Frank E. Loy
was the president of the German Marshall Fund of
the United States, and is a director at Population
Services International.
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