A woman in Michigan who said a pharmacist who refused to fill her prescription for a miscarriage drug because it went against his religious beliefs has partnered with her state's branch of the American Civil Liberties Union to urge Meijer to enact a companywide policy for handling such cases, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The medication she was seeking, Misoprostol, can be used along with another drug to induce labor, but can also help treat stomach ulcers.
"He said that he was a good Catholic male and that he couldn't in good conscience give me this medication because it's used for abortions, and he could not prescribe that," Rachel Peterson told the Tribune. “When you’re at one of the lowest moments of your life, you don’t expect this sort of demeaning treatment."
Ms. Peterson said the pharmacist also refused to transfer her prescription to another pharmacy.
Merissa Kovach, a policy strategist with the Michigan ACLU, said the pharmacist's refusal to fill the prescription was discrimination. The organization sent a letter to Meijer this week informing the company it had violated the state's public accommodation laws.
"Had the customer been a man prescribed the same medication, that is also commonly used to treat ulcers, the pharmacist would have filled it,” said Ms. Kovach. “What we would hope is that Meijer and other pharmacies would agree that they're allowed to accommodate the personal beliefs of their employees, but that accommodation cannot include permitting discriminatory denials of care that burden patients and customers."