“We continue to enhance our MinuteClinic services, growing from providing urgent care to offering more holistic care,” wrote DeAngelis.
First Liberty Institute specializes in cases related to religious freedom and regularly raises funds to finance its defense of clients in similar situations. Earlier this month, the firm filed a suit on behalf of Robyn Strader, a Baptist nurse practitioner from Texas who was fired from CVS for similar reasons.
In an article published on the First Liberty Institute website, Jorge Gomez, a content manager for the law firm, wrote that CVS’ refusal to grant religious exemptions sends a message “that religious health care workers are not welcome and need not apply” and that “instead of following the law, CVS preferred to join the ranks of the ‘woke’ corporations rendering religious employees second class citizens.”
Since CVS enacted the new policy, two other nurse practitioners have also sued the company, alleging religious discrimination. In September 2022, Page Casey, a former CVS employee from Virginia, sued after she was fired for refusing to prescribe contraceptives. She is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian conservative legal group.
In October 2022, Suzanne Schuler, a former CVS employee from Kansas, sued the company after her religious accommodation was revoked. In October 2023, both parties settled.
In January, CVS and Walgreens announced they would be selling the mifepristone abortion pill after the Food and Drug Administration dropped a 20-year rule that prevented drugstores from doing so. The pill, available on the market since 2000, can be used through the 10th week of pregnancy.
Since November 2022, the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, an anti-abortion group, has been challenging the FDA’s approval of the drug at the Supreme Court. The group includes religious organizations such as the Catholic Medical Association, the Christian Medical & Dental Associations and the Coptic Medical Association of North America.
This article originally appeared here.
