Nurse sues CVS after claiming company fired her because she refused to give Plan B to patients

A Virginia nurse practitioner claimed she was fired from her clinic job because she refused to give contraceptives or Plan B to patients based on her religious beliefs. 

Paige Casey, who is Catholic, was fired on April 1, 2022, after she refused to follow CVS MinuteClinic’s policy – which was updated in August 2021 – that employees were no longer allowed to deny prescribing Plan B or birth control to patients.  

Casey’s religious exemption was granted from when she started at the clinic in 2018 until CVS ‘abruptly stopped’ accepting her exemption in December 2021, the lawsuit read. 

She reportedly asked her supervisors for another exemption in December after the policy change, and she was reportedly told by company officials in January and March they would not approve it. 

She was let go after she continued to refuse to prescribe the medication. 

In her original request in 2018, she allegedly told CVS that her religion forbade her from ‘prescribing or facilitating the use of a drug or device that prevents or can prevent implantation of a fertilized egg.’ 

CVS Health Representative Michael DeAngelis told DailyMail.com on Friday that Casey’s request was denied because she cannot be exempt from performing ‘essential functions’ of her job. 

She was fired from the Alexandra, Virginia, store (pictured) on April 1, 2022, after the company denied her December request to have her exemption reinstated. CVS changed its policy in August 2021, stating that employees were not longer allowed to deny prescribing Plan B or birth control to patients, despite religious beliefs 

‘MinuteClinic does not provide abortion care or services, but educating and treating patients regarding sexual health matters – including pregnancy prevention, sexually transmitted infection prevention, screening and treatment, and safer sex practices – have become essential job functions of our providers and nurses,’ DeAngelis told DailyMail.com in a statement. 

‘We cannot grant exemptions from these essential MinuteClinic functions unless we are required to do so under certain state laws.’ 

Virginia law states that ‘any [healthcare worker] who shall state in writing an objection to any abortion or all abortions on personal, ethical, moral or religious grounds shall not be required to participate in procedures which will result in such abortion.’ 

Plan B, which is available over the counter, is not a medical abortion and does not perform the same function as a medical abortion. In the same fashion, contraceptives – and Plan B – are only used to prevent pregnancies and are not considered a procedure. 

A medical abortion can be performed in a two-pill plan in the early stages of pregnancy. The pills would be picked up at a pharmacy and taken at home to terminate an existing pregnancy. Plan B and contraception can only prevent a pregnancy, not terminate an existing one.  

Alliance Defending Justice, who is representing her, said CVS is ‘defying the law’ to allow her to not prescribe contraception in Virginia. The state law, however, only allows a religious exemption to stop an abortion, not prevent a pregnancy. Plan B and contraceptives, like birth control, can only prevent a pregnancy, not terminate an existing one 

However, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a Christian conservative group representing Casey, are claiming CVS ‘defied the law’ by firing the practitioner, who had a ‘spotless record’ over her religious beliefs. 

‘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,’ ADF Senior Counsel Denise Harle said in a statement. 

‘We are entering some dangerous territory if corporations can fire someone for exercising their religious beliefs. Tolerance goes two ways,’ she said.  

While Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin did say in June he would seek to set an abortion ban past 15 weeks, neither abortion nor contraceptives are currently illegal there. 

Many pharmacies, like CVS and Walgreens, have been coming under fire for not firing employees who refuse patients access to healthcare based on their religious beliefs.  

In mid-July, a married couple Jessica and Nate Pentz were refused to purchase condoms in a Minneapolis Walgreens by a clerk named John. 

John reportedly told them: ‘I can’t sell those to you. Well, we can sell that to you but I will not, because of my faith.’ 

She told the cashier that it was ‘none of his business’ what she purchased. 

A manager did ring the couple up and they were, in the end, able to purchase condoms.  

Walgreens apologized but did reiterate that employees could step away from the register if they have a moral objection to the purchase. 

‘Our company policy allows team members to step away from completing a transaction to which they have a moral objection and refer the transaction to a fellow team member or manager who will complete the customer’s request,’ Walgreens said. 

The company also stated that pharmacists who disagree with a patient’s prescription could also step away, but would have to refer it to another pharmacist. 

Another Walgreens store refused to refill Abigail Martin’s birth control because of religious beliefs. 

‘When I told her what I was there for, my birth control, she looks me up and down and goes, ‘Hmm.’ Like, excuse me?

Martin double-checked with her provider that everything was fine for her prescription, and when she returned the following day to pick up her overdue birth control, another employee allegedly told her the store has been having trouble with that employee.

Customers are now calling for a boycott of pharmacies allowing employees to deny access to birth control and other forms of contraceptives based on their religious, especially after the Supreme Court overturn of Roe v. Wade, which jeopardizes millions of American women’s access to birth control. 

Roe v. Wade: The landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in America

In 1973, the United States Supreme Court recognized a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion in Roe v. Wade. The landmark ruling legalized abortion nationwide but divided public opinion and has been under attack ever since. 

The case was filed in 1971 by Norma McCorvey, a 22-year-old living in Texas, who was unmarried and seeking a termination of her unwanted pregnancy. 

Because of state legislation preventing abortions unless the mother’s life was at risk, she was unable to undergo the procedure in a safe and legal environment.

So McCorvey sued Henry Wade, the Dallas county district attorney, in 1970. The case went on to the Supreme Court, under the filing Roe v. Wade, to protect McCorvey’s privacy.

Supreme Court Decision

The Supreme Court handed down the watershed 7-2 decision that a woman’s right to make her own medical decisions, including the choice to have an abortion, is protected under the 14th Amendment. 

In particular, that the Due Process Clause of the the 14th Amendment provides a fundamental ‘right to privacy’ that protects a woman’s liberty to choose whether or not to have an abortion.

 …nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law

The landmark ruling saw abortions decriminalized in 46 states, but under certain conditions which individual states could decide. For example, states could decide whether abortions were allowed only during the first and second trimester but not the third (typically beyond 28 weeks). 

Impact 

Among pro-choice campaigners, the decision was hailed as a victory which would mean fewer women would become seriously – or even fatally – ill from abortions carried out by unqualified or unlicensed practitioners. Moreover, the freedom of choice was considered a significant step in the equality fight for women in the country. Victims of rape or incest would be able to have the pregnancy terminated and not feel coerced into motherhood.

Pro-lifers contended it was tantamount to murder and that every life, no matter how it was conceived, is precious. Though the decision has never been overturned, anti-abortionists have prompted hundreds of states laws since then narrowing the scope of the ruling.

One such was the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act signed by President George W. Bush in 2003, which banned a procedure used to perform second-trimester abortions.   

McCorvey lived a quiet life until the 1980s, when she revealed herself to be Jane Roe

Norma McCorvey (Jane Roe)

Following the ruling, McCorvey lived a quiet life until the 1980s, when she revealed herself to be Jane Roe. McCorvey became a leading, outspoken pro-abortion voice in American discourse, even working at a women’s clinic where abortions were performed.

She performed an unlikely U-turn in 1995, becoming a born again Christian and began traveling the country speaking out against the procedure.

In 2003, she filed a motion to overturn her original 1973 ruling with the US district court in Dallas. The motion moved through the courts until it was ultimately denied by the Supreme Court in 2005.

McCorvey died at an assisted living home in Texas in February 2017, aged 69. 

‘The Heartbeat bill’

Multiple governors have signed legislation outlawing abortion if a doctor can detect a so-called ‘fetal heartbeat,’ part of a concerted effort to restrict abortion rights in states across the country.

Under the ban, doctors will be prosecuted for flouting the rules.

Abortion-rights supporters see the ‘heartbeat bills’ as virtual bans because ‘fetal heartbeats’ can be detected as early as six weeks, when women may not even be aware they’re pregnant.

Anti-abortion campaigners have intensified their efforts since former President Donald Trump appointed two conservative justices to the US Supreme Court, hopeful they can convince the right-leaning court to re-examine Roe v. Wade.

Georgia, Ohio, Missouri and Louisiana have enacted ‘heartbeat laws’ recently, and Alabama passed an even more restrictive version in May, amounting to a near-total ban on abortion from the moment of conception. Other states have similar legislation pending.

Similar laws has also been passed in Arkansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, Iowa and Kentucky, though they have been blocked by courts from going into effect as legal challenges have been brought against them.