CVS ends religious accommodations, fires employee who refused to prescribe contraception

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A religious discrimination dispute is underway in Texas over a CVS location firing a Christian nurse practitioner after terminating her six-year religious accommodation against prescribing contraception.

(Article by Calvin Freiburger republished from LifeSiteNews.com)

The National Catholic Register reported that the CVS Pharmacy MinuteClinic in Keller hired 72-year-old Robyn Strader in 2015, at which time she secured a religious accommodation to avoid prescribing contraception, an arrangement that worked “for more than six years without any problems,” according to her attorney, Christine Pratt of First Liberty Institute.

In August 2021, however, CVS decided to end such accommodations and decided that “all nurses must perform essential services related to pregnancy prevention.” First Liberty’s complaint submitted to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleges that Strader’s manager then said she had no accommodation on file, repeatedly pressured her to change her beliefs, and ultimately fired her at the end of October.

The complaint further alleges that CVS failed to respond to three separate letters from Strader in a timely fashion; CVS claims Strader never requested an 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, 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 contends. “In these ways, CVS violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.”

“I am a Christian and a longtime member of a Baptist church,” says Strader, who holds a Ph.D. in health education from the University of Toledo Medical Center and a master’s degree in nursing, education, & family nurse practitioner from Texas Woman’s University. “I believe that all human life is created in God’s image and should be protected. For this reason, I cannot participate in facilitating an abortion or participate in facilitating contraceptive use that could prevent the implantation of an embryo, cause an abortion or contribute to infertility.”

Christianity and science agree that the life of a distinct, living human begins with conception, and many so-called “contraceptive” birth control methods actually function by destroying one of these new humans after conception has already occurred.

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s online guide to birth control methods admits that while so-called “emergency contraception” pills ostensibly prevent fertilization by preventing egg release, they “may also work (…) by preventing attachment (implantation) to the womb,” resulting in the death of an embryonic human being.

“If Plan B is taken five to two days before egg release is due to happen, the interference with the LH signal prevents a woman from releasing an egg, no fertilization happens, and no embryo is formed,” Dr. Donna Harrison of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists explained. However, if the pill is taken during the “two-day window in which embryos can form but positive pregnancy tests don’t occur,” studies indicate it “has a likely embryocidal effect in stopping pregnancy.”

Intrauterine devices (IUDs) can also function by preventing an already-conceived embryo from implanting in a woman’s uterine lining, resulting in death.

The case highlights the double standards of many in the mental health profession, who do not respect health care workers’ right not to participate in abortion-related services yet not only welcome but expect pharmacists to block legitimate prescriptions from licensed physicians for drugs like ivermectin.