Pharmacist Sues After His Firing For Refusing To Sell "Morning After" Contraceptives

Thomas More Society announced yesterday that it has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf a a pharmacist who was fired by from his position at a Jamestown, Tennessee Walgreen's after he told management he would not participate in the sale of Plan B oral contraceptives.  The complaint (full text) in Hall v. Walgreen Company, (MD TN, filed 2/11/2014), alleges that the company previously permitted pharmacist Phillip Hall to refer customers seeking to purchase Plan B to another pharmacist in the store as a way of accommodating Hall's religious objections to selling the emergency contraceptive which he believes is an abortifacient. However the store changed its policy once it began to stock a new over-the-counter version of Plan B.  A factor in Hall's firing apparently was also his action in personally purchasing and disposing of the store's first shipment of 6 boxes of the over-the-counter version as a way to prevent its being available. The complaint alleges that Hall's firing violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the free exercise clause of the Tennessee constitution and Tennessee's Right to Refuse statute that protects anyone from being required to participate in the performance of an abortion.