Walgreens Fires Pharmacist for Refusing to Violate His Religious Beliefs

Yesterday, the Thomas More Society, a Chicago-based public interest law firm, together with Nashville area Tennessee attorney Larry Crain, of Crain, Schuette & Associates, filed a federal lawsuit in the Middle District of Tennessee on behalf of Pharmacist Dr. Philip Hall against the Walgreen Company. The complaint alleges that, in August 2013, Walgreens wrongfully fired Hall, who had been employed for six years as a pharmacist at Walgreens' store in Jamestown, Tennessee, in violation of his constitutionally and statutorily protected rights to freedom of religion.

Hall, a practicing Baptist, entertains profound religious and moral objections to dispensing abortifacients, or abortion-inducing drugs, such as Plan B. For six years, Walgreens respected Hall's religious beliefs and gave him only favorable reviews for his work performance. But in August 2013, Walgreens did an "about-face" and tried to force Hall to dispense Plan B in violation of his beliefs. When Hall indicated his intent to continue following the internal procedures that accommodated his beliefs, Walgreens fired him...

Just contacted Walgreens using the following link. In order to submit you have to put a date of visit and I used today’s date.

http://www.walgreens.com/mktg/contactus/contact-us-forms.jsp?tier3Id=1075

I lost two parents this year. . .both WWII Veterans and to think that they put their lives on the line for what this country has become. It disgusts me.

God will not be mocked. If our nation doesn’t turn around soon as well as offer support to Israel, we are doomed!

Ahh the usual Business Socialist response! And which Amendment in the Constitution specifically protects a businesses right to sell abortion products, and to violate an individuals rights in the process?

Sorry, but it would seem that YOU are the socialist here. Otherwise you would be appalled at the idea that anyone has an inherent right to a job, that they cannot be fired by an employer at will, and that the government can require a private business to retain an employee who refuses to sell the employer's product, even though it is legal.

Moreover, you may have failed to note that to the extent abortion is murder, that is rightly a matter for state law, not federal law. That's why it is the individual states that make their own laws regarding the definitions of murder and the punishments associated therewith.

I suppose you would support that claim that a supermarket cannot fire a Muslim cashier who refuses to sell pork products. You are essentially making the same argument.

By all means, argue vociferously for abortion in all forms to be outlawed. Stand outside the business with a sign and call for a boycott.

But let's not support the right of the government to decide who businesses must hire and cannot fire. I recognize that the federal and state governments have been doing just that since the totalitarian leftists took over the writing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

But we here at FR, and in the conservative movement, are supposed to be arguing AGAINST such government encroachment.

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