Leading pro-life attorneys are defending a pro-life pharmacist who refused to fill a prescription for a drug that can cause abortions.
Alliance Defending Freedom will appear tomorrow before the Minnesota Court of Appeals in Anderson v. Thrifty White Pharmacy. The case centers on a pro-life pharmacist who declined to fill a prescription for the morning after pill because it can occasionally cause an abortion and destroy the life of a new human being.
Minnesota pharmacist George Badeaux was sued because of his conscientious objection to dispensing a drug that can cause an abortion, an action that violates his religious beliefs.
A jury found that Badeaux did not discriminate based on sex when he abided by his sincere religious beliefs that life begins at conception. ADF attorneys filed a brief in August supporting his constitutional right to work in accordance with his faith.
Badeaux was a pharmacist at Aitkin Pharmacy, where he was asked by a customer to dispense the drug ella. Because of his religious belief that life begins at conception, he notified the customer that he could not dispense the pill in good conscience and instead referred the request to another pharmacist, who was willing to fill the prescription. Despite Badeaux’s efforts to accommodate the customer—and her ability to get the drug the next day—the customer sued in an attempt to punish Badeaux’s conscientious objection.
“No one should be forced to violate his conscience in the workplace, and that includes dispensing drugs that can cause an abortion,” said ADF Senior Counsel Rory Gray, who will be arguing before the court.
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Gray told LifeNews:
“Mr. Badeaux politely informed the customer that his personal beliefs precluded him from dispensing the drug, but he offered to help her get the drug from another pharmacist, which she would have been able to do at the same pharmacy. Mr. Badeaux is a Christian who believes that an embryo is a new human life and, as such, taking a drug that prevents an embryo from implantation in the uterus ends a human life. We are urging the court to affirm the jury’s verdict and trial court’s decision, which respected Mr. Badeaux’s constitutionally protected freedom to act consistent with his beliefs while at work.”
Badeaux was just doing his job on a snowy January day in 2019 when a woman came in hoping to fill her prescription for the morning-after pill. Realizing the order was for emergency contraception, Badeaux came to the window and explained that he was sorry, but because of his personal beliefs, he couldn’t help her.
Andrea Anderson started calling other drugstores in the area, to no avail. Eventually, she hit the road, driving 50 miles to a pharmacy that had the drug in stock and agreed to dispense it. Furious that she had to go out of her way and angry that the winter storm made the trip longer than expected, Anderson decided to sue.
In denying the pills, the lawsuit argued that Badeaux somehow violated the Minnesota Human Rights Act and let his faith “interfere[e] with his ability to perform his job as a medical professional.” And yet, even her complaint acknowledged that the state’s Board of Pharmacy supports his decision to turn down prescriptions for emergency contraception. And even though the owner of the store, now called McGregor Pharmacy, was sympathetic to Anderson, he explained that Badeaux was also a local pastor of deep conviction.
That didn’t seem to matter to Anderson, who — like today’s Democrats — believes her “right” to birth control or abortion, which is nowhere in the Constitution, is more important than Badeaux’s religious freedom — which is. Fortunately, a jury disagreed — siding with Badeaux and giving the Democrats prepared to scrap conscience rights a very good reason to reconsider.
But the case is not over and Badeaux is still defending his pro-life conscience rights in court.
Family Research Council’s Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity, agrees with ADF, telling The Washington Stand that this case should be “a source of encouragement” for anyone who values freedom. “True freedom isn’t simply having the ability to do what we want,” Szoch insisted. “It is having the ability to do what we ought to do. George Badeaux exercised his right to freedom. He stood strong in his belief that it was morally wrong for him to participate in taking the life of an innocent human being in any way.”
LifeNews Note: File photo.
