A pro-life Catholic nurse practitioner in Virginia is suing CVS after she was allegedly illegally fired for refusing to prescribe abortion-inducing drugs.
Paige Casey began working as a nurse practitioner at several CVS MinuteClinic locations in northern Virginia a local CVS Minute Clinic in Virginia in 2018.
When she began employment at CVS, Casey requested a religious exemption from her employer from prescribing contraceptives or dispensing abortion-inducing drugs.
CVS accommodated Casey’s religious convictions for three-and-a-half years.
But in August 2021, CVS told Paige they would “no longer accommodate employees with religious convictions against prescribing abortifacients, hormonal contraceptives, and other forms of birth control that can cause abortions.”
A few months later, she was fired for not following policy — just two days after earning a performance-based raise.
The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group, is suing CVS for “blatant religious discrimination” and violating Virginia law after the major corporation refused Casey’s request for an exemption.
MinuteClinic’s actions violate Virginia state law, specifically the state’s Conscience Clause, according to the complaint filed in the Virginia Circuit Court for the County of Prince William on behalf of Paige Casey
The Conscience Clause prohibits employers from firing or disciplining an employee if they “state in writing an objection to any abortion or all abortions on personal, ethical, moral or religious grounds.”
“Corporations like CVS cannot defy the law by firing professionals who want to work consistently with their faith,” ADF Senior Counsel Denise Harle said in a contends. “”Paige had a spotless record of caring for patients, yet CVS decided to abruptly fire her, solely because of her religious belief that life begins at conception. Virginia law protects the freedom of everyone to work without fear of being fired for their religious beliefs prohibiting participation in abortion.”
The ADF is urging Americans to sign a petition to “send a message to CVS it cannot defy the law and fire health care professionals wo want to work consistently with their faith.”
CVS’ Minute Clinic has repeatedly ignited backlash for refusing to accommodate employees’ religious exemptions.
On Wednesday, former CVS nurse practitioner Suzanne Shuler filed a lawsuit against CVS after getting terminated by the pharmacy chain last October for “refusing to prescribe abortion-causing drugs.”
Schuler worked as a nurse practitioner at CVS MinuteClinic in Olathe, Kansas from 2009 to 2021. She “obtained religious exemptions to a 2011 requirement that nurse practitioners refill birth control prescriptions and a 2015 amendment to her job description requiring her to prescribe contraceptives, including abortion-inducing drugs,” Christian Post reports.
“The lawsuit asks a federal court to grant Schuler’s request for ‘damages, including lost wages and benefits and wages due to her termination, unpaid lost wages due to wrongful discharge or constructive discharge, back pay, reinstatement or front pay, prejudgment and post-judgment interest, punitive damages, and compensatory damages, including, but not limited to, damages for pain and suffering, mental and emotional distress, suffering and anxiety, reductions in wages, expenses costs and other damages,'” the publication notes.
According to the complaint filed in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas, Schuler’s Christian faith “prohibits her from providing, prescribing, or facilitating the use of any drug, device, or surgical procedure that can cause abortion — including drugs like certain hormonal contraceptives, Plan B and Ella.”
In February, Robyn Strader, a nurse practitioner at a MinuteClinic in Keller, Texas was fired after CVS stopped accommodating requests for religious exemptions from prescribing contraception. First Liberty Institute filed a complaint to the Equal Opportunity Commission on behalf of Strader.
CVS stands by its policy requiring nurses to perform “essential functions” of the job.
The company has “a well-defined process in place for employees to request and be granted a reasonable accommodation due to their religious beliefs, which in some cases can be an exemption from performing certain job functions,” CVS’ Executive Director of Corporate Communications Mike DeAngelis said in a statement. “It is not possible, however, to grant an accommodation that exempts an employee from performing the essential functions of the job.”
As major corporations purge patriots Christians over their religious beliefs, pro-life Christians are unprecedently being targeted by the Justice Department under the Biden administration.
Last week, the DOJ indicted 11 pro-life activists after they allegedly “blocked access” to an abortion clinic in Tennessee last spring.
Paul Vaughn, a Christian man protested in front of a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in March 2021,
Video footage that recently surfaced on social media shows the heavily armed FBI agents raiding Vaughn’s home. FBI agents are seen hauling Vaughn away as a woman pleads with agents to answer her questions about why they were “banging on my door with a gun.”
Vaughn and the other pro-life demonstrators are charged with violating the FACE Act for protesting in front of Planned Parenthood and face up to 11 years in prison and fines up to $350,000.
In September, Mark Houck was also swatted and raided by the FBI for shoving an abortion escort that harassed his 12-year-old son outside of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Pennsylvania.
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