Pharmacist refused emergency contraception prescription. Court to decide if that was discrimination
MINNEAPOLIS– Lawyers for a woman who was denied emergency contraception in 2019 told the Minnesota Court of Appeals Thursday that the pharmacist who refused to fill the prescription discriminated against her based on her gender.
But an attorney for George Badeaux, the pharmacist at Thrifty White in central Minnesota, said his refusal to dispense the drug because of his religious beliefs did not violate state and federal law.
A jury ruled last year that Badeaux did not discriminate against Andrea Anderson, a mother and foster parent, when he refused to fill her prescription for Ella, a drug used to stop a pregnancy before it starts. The jury also awarded Anderson $25,000 for emotional damages — money she cannot collect because there was no discrimination, said Jess Braverman, one of Anderson's attorneys.
Gender Justice, a gender equality advocacy group, and other attorneys for Anderson appealed the jury's ruling this year.
“This was pregnancy-related discrimination,” Braverman, legal director of Gender Justice, said in court Thursday.
Braverman added that Badeaux illegally discriminated against Anderson based on her gender when he refused to fill her prescription for a drug prescribed only to women.
Anderson eventually had her prescription filled at a pharmacy in Brainerd, completing a 100-plus mile round trip in winter driving conditions in 2019.
Rory Gray, an attorney for Badeaux, argued that federal and state laws would not classify Badeaux's actions as pregnancy discrimination.
The Minnesota Human Rights Act “focuses on motives, not consequences,” Gray said. 'Mr Badeaux must have had a discriminatory motive. The jury found that he had not. a lot of what is being done and why it is being done.”
Gray added that Badeaux was not focused on himself or Anderson when he refused to fill the prescription. “He was primarily focused on a third party. And that's the life that comes from when an egg is fertilized,” Gray said.
Braverman said it doesn't matter whether Badeaux meant to harm Anderson or not.
“That is not part of a discrimination claim. The issue is simply whether they have denied the person full and equal access to goods and services,” Braverman said.
“The problem that arose here was that the court instructed the jury that if Mr. Badeaux did not intend to harm, stigmatize and embarrass Ms. Anderson, then they had not committed discrimination. And that's not the law in Minnesota – it's whether you intended to discriminate, which we have here…undisputed testimony to that,” Braverman added.
The three-judge panel has 90 days to decide the appeal.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court ended constitutional protections for abortion last year, some states have expanded access to emergency contraceptives and birth control, while other states have restricted access and implemented abortion bans.
According to the American Society for Emergency Contraception, dozens of universities across the country now have emergency contraceptives in vending machines. Some, like the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma, are located in states that largely ban abortion.
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Trisha Ahmed is a staff member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @TrishaAhmed15