Minnesota pharmacist allowed to deny contraception because of religious beliefs, jury rules

A Minnesota pharmacist was allowed to deny a woman emergency contraception because of his religious beliefs, a jury ruled Friday.

Andrea Anderson sued pharmacist George Badeaux in 2019, claiming that he violated her rights under Minnesota law by denying her the morning-after pill Ella.

Anderson, a mother of five, called her local pharmacy in the tiny central Minnesota town of McGregor to get a morning-after prescription after a condom failed, according to the lawsuit. Badeaux answered the phone and said he wouldn’t fill the prescription, citing his religious beliefs.

The lawsuit said Anderson eventually had to drive 100 miles round-trip in a snowstorm to obtain the morning-after pill from a pharmacy in Brainerd. The trip took three hours, according to the suit.

The Minnesota Human Rights Act outlaws discrimination based on sex and specifically addresses pregnancy and childbirth.

A Minnesota woman was denied the morning-after pill by her local pharmacist.

However, the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy allows pharmacists to deny prescriptions for emergency contraceptives if they conflict with a pharmacist’s personal beliefs, according to Minnesota Public Radio.

Attorneys for Anderson argued that these points were in conflict and that by denying Anderson’s prescription, Badeaux had violated state law.

“The testimony was so clear that she received lesser services than other customers because what she was going there for was emergency contraception. And so we believe that, by law, that’s discrimination in Minnesota,” said Jess Braverman, legal director for Gender Justice, an advocacy group that represented Anderson.

But the jury disagreed, leaving Braverman promising to appeal the ruling.

The House of Representatives passed a bill last month that would enshrine the right to contraception into federal law. Political observers are skeptical that it would pass the more conservative Senate. Democrats pushed the bill in response to the Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe v. Wade and Justice Clarence Thomas’ explicit threat to go further.

With News Wire Services