A former employee of CVS Pharmacy filed a discrimination charge against the company this month, claiming that the organization violated federal law when they fired her after she sought religious accommodation from prescribing abortion-inducing drugs to a patient.
Robyn Strader filed a case with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against CVS Pharmacy, citing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which bans discrimination based on one's religion.
According to the complaint, Strader is a Christian who firmly believes that "all human life...should be protected." The drugs that she was supposed to prescribe are those that can "prevent the implantation of an embryo, cause an abortion, or contribute to infertility," the former nurse said in the complaint. Filling the prescription would mean that she was "facilitating an abortion."
The Christian Headlines reported that Strader was employed at CVS Pharmacy for six and a half years at the retail giant's Keller, Texas local store. In the duration of her employment, the company accommodated her religious exemption, as per the complaint, which was filed by First Liberty Institute. During times when a patient would seek contraceptives, Strader would either refer them to another nurse on duty or ask them to visit another CVS Pharmacy just two miles down the road.
However, on August 26, 2021, CVS Pharmacy announced that all nurses must perform "essential services." Strader's manager urged her to "change her beliefs" about contraception, but she refused. CVS Pharmacy then fired her on October 31, 2021, denying her requests for religious accommodation.
"CVS discriminated against Ms. Strader on the basis of religion when it prospectively preempted all requests for religious accommodations related to contraception prescription, derided her religious beliefs and pressured her to abandon them," the complaint said.
It also cited how CVS Pharmacy "discontinued a six-year religious accommodation without cause, refused to consider her request for an ongoing religious accommodation, failed to engage with her about possible accommodations, and terminated her because of her religious beliefs."
First Liberty Institute Counsel Christine Pratt declared in a news release that the "corporate canceling" of "faithful religious Americans" like the former CVS Pharmacy nurse "must end." She called it "bad medicine" to make healthcare professionals choose between their jobs and their faith especially in times when the industry needs more workers.
Religious healthcare workers are continuing the fight against liberal rules, especially in the face of the COVID pandemic. On November 5, 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid established a rule that would require all healthcare workers to be vaccinated against COVID. The rule allows for medical and religious reasons.
According to U.S. News, CMS required healthcare workers to have had at least one dose of the COVID vaccine by January 27 in jurisdictions that had not challenged the mandate in court. CMS also required the COVID vaccines for workers in two dozen other states who filed lawsuits against the Biden administration's vaccine mandate by February 14. Texas, which sued separately from the other states, is required to have its healthcare workers get at least one dose by February 22.
