Numerous groups affiliated with the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to Walgreens relaying their concerns with its plans for Renton, Wash.-based Providence Health to run its in-store health clinics, according to The Associated Press.
Providence Health is a Catholic hospital, and it plans to oversee 25 of Walgreens' in-store clinics throughout the states of Washington and Oregon. Groups including Planned Parenthood, NARAL and multiple gay-rights organizations signed the letter, according to the report.
The nineteen groups are worried that whether certain services — including abortion drugs, access to contraception and prescriptions to help terminally ill patients end their lives — will not be offered at Walgreens after its affiliation with Providence.
"In our states, we have consistently seen that when secular entities join with religious health systems, the services, information or referrals provided at the secular entity become limited by religious doctrine," said the letter. In the letter, the ACLU-affiliated organizations cite past situations in which the same issue occurred. For example, when Seattle-based SwedishMedicalCenter partnered with Providence in 2012, the new organization stopped offering elective abortion services, according to the report.
The groups also expressed concern over whether Walgreens will continue to offer services to all customers. "Can Walgreens offer assurances that its LGBTQ customers and LGBTQ patients at the clinics will be treated with dignity and respect and will receive the same medical standard of care as any other customer?" the letter asked.
Providence Health spokeswoman Colleen Wadden ensured all patients at the clinics will be treated equally. She added that clinic services will likely be limited to treatment of minor illnesses and testing for sexually transmitted diseases.
Walgreens spokesman Jim Cohn also commented on the letter: "We have no plans to change any of our current policies in light of the Providence relationship," he said, according to the report.