A nurse practitioner from northern Virginia is suing CVS Well being, alleging she was fired for refusing to offer abortion-inducing medication on the retailer's MinuteClinic medical services.
Paige Casey is asking for $100,000 in damages, together with again pay, in line with the go well with, which was filed Wednesday in Prince William County Circuit Court docket.
Within the lawsuit, Paige Casey stated CVS had for years granted her a spiritual lodging that allowed her to decide out of prescribing or offering the medication and sure contraceptives with out incident. The pharmacy chain modified its coverage final yr, Casey stated, and has stopped offering the lodging.
Casey, who had labored for MinuteClinics since 2018, appealed to the corporate and stated her Catholic religion teaches her that life begins at conception and he or she couldn't present care in violation of that precept. Casey was advised by a supervisor in late March that her non secular beliefs would now not be accommodated and was fired April 1, the lawsuit states.
Casey is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, a nonprofit authorized group that champions conservative causes. ADF stated Virginia regulation bars employers from taking disciplinary motion in opposition to staff who object to abortion on non secular grounds.
"Each American ought to have the liberty to function in line with their moral and non secular beliefs," ADF lawyer Kevin Theriot stated.
Michael DeAngelis, a spokesman for Rhode Island-based CVS, the biggest retail pharmacy within the nation, stated the corporate tries to accommodate non secular beliefs, however stated offering sexual well being companies is a core a part of working at its MinuteClinic walk-in clinics.
"It isn't potential ... to grant an lodging that exempts an worker from performing the important capabilities of their job," DeAngelis stated in a press release. "We can not grant exemptions from these important MinuteClinic capabilities."
Whereas companies have lengthy grappled with non secular claims by particular person staff exempting them from a selected work requirement, the difficulty has taken on a brand new salience after the U.S. Supreme Court docket overturned Roe v. Wade in June.
Since then, 11 states have handed near-total bans on abortion companies, together with Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. In Virginia, abortion is authorized till the second trimester, or round 26 weeks.
In July, the Division of Well being and Human Providers directed retail pharmacies that they've an "obligation to make sure entry to complete reproductive well being care companies." That very same month, Walgreens got here beneath fireplace after a affected person stated a pharmacist refused to fill her contraception prescription due to non secular beliefs.
Theriot stated there may be little or no case regulation beneath the Virginia statute, partially as a result of "very hardly ever do companies simply come out and fireplace anyone due to their non secular convictions." However he stated most states present comparable protections, and federal regulation supplies safety as effectively.
Theriot claimed that sufferers who wished contraception or abortion drugs not supplied by Casey might schedule or be served by different employees on the MinuteClinic, and that labored seamlessly till CVS modified its coverage.
"CVS created an issue the place none existed," he stated.