CVS fired a nurse who refused to give out birth control
The pharmacy chain refused to accommodate her religious convictions after a policy change
The pharmacy chain CVS is being sued after refusing to accommodate a nurse practitioner who had a religious objection to contraceptives and was subsequently terminated from her position.
The First Liberty Institute is representing Gudrun "Gunna" Kristofersdottir, who was employed at a CVS Minute Clinic and was able to exercise religious accommodations to her Catholic objection to hormonal contraceptives for several years before company policy changed course.
"After accommodating Gunna for several years, CVS fired her because it simply did not like her religious beliefs," Stephanie Taub, First Liberty Institute Senior Counsel, said in a statement. "It is illegal to issue a blanket revocation of all religious accommodations when CVS can accommodate its employees. CVS is sending a message that religious health care workers are not welcome and need not apply."
According to The Christian Post, Kristofersdottir was provided with accommodations prior to a 2021 company policy change which denied "all such religious accommodations without considering the particular circumstances of the employee requesting the accommodation, including to determine whether that employee could be accommodated without undue hardship."
Although the nurse practitioner continued to exercise her accommodations for several months, when she sought to clarify her position in relation to the new policy, she found herself fired.
"Our employment laws protect religious freedom in the workplace," said Jonathan Berry of Boyden Gray, which is also representing Kristofersdottir. "No one should have to choose between her faith and her job, especially where it would be easy to continue a longstanding religious accommodation."
Link: CVS Fired Staffer After Refusing to Accommodate Religious Objections to Contraceptives
Officials at the U.S. Treasury Department directed banks to flag purchases such as religious texts that could be considered “extremist” as well as items bought at sporting goods store and suspicious travel plans.
The House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released its findings last week that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau within the Treasury Department, told banking institutions to look for purchases of certain types of religious literature, firearms and accessories, ammunition, and purchases at pawn shops.
FinCEN also issued educational materials to banks describing purchases at such retail outlets as Academy Sports and Outdoors, Cabela’s, Bass Pro Shops, and Dick’s Sporting Goods could signal a person was an “active shooter.”
“Despite these transactions having no apparent criminal nexus—and, in fact, relate to Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights—FinCEN seems to have adopted a characterization of these Americans as potential threat actors,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) wrote in a letter to the federal bureau demanding answers.
“This kind of pervasive financial surveillance, carried out in coordination with and at the request of federal law enforcement, into Americans’ private transactions is alarming and raises serious doubts about FinCEN’s respect for fundamental civil liberties.”
Jordan’s letter directed at the Office of Stakeholder Integration and Engagement in the Strategic Operations Division’s former director Noah Bishoff appear before the subcommittee.
Meanwhile, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who sits on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki seeking answers on who authorized the requests of these financial records.
Scott also asked, “Which religious texts were flagged as potentially indicative of extremism? And on what basis did Treasury/FinCEN conclude that purchasing or possessing of religious texts may be indicative of extremism?”
“Federal government efforts to target individuals and entities based on their political views is a blatant and egregious violation of our Constitution,” his letter also stated. “Additionally, reported actions like these disrupt confidence in federal law enforcement and raise significant questions regarding the independence of federal financial regulators.”
Link: Treasury Dept. Officials Directed Banks to Flag Customers Buying “Extremist” Religious Texts
The Anti-Defamation League has flagged prominent critics of so-called “gender affirming” treatments for children to be investigated by law enforcement for “hate” activities.
The Oversight Project, a division of The Heritage Foundation, made the discovery after obtaining emails via Freedom of Information Act request that the ADL had sent to the Washington State Fusion Center, an institution for “unified counterterrorism.”
The email was issued from the ADL’s “Law Enforcement” address to intelligence analyst Tyler Phelan under the subject “White Supremacist Fight Clubs, Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate” and goes on to describe “extremist landscape.”
Among Islamist and white supremacist terrorism, the ADL includes “online amplifiers of LGBTQ+ Hate” that promote “false narratives, escalating harassment of LGBTQ+ individuals.”
Of this group’s activities, the email describes “the vilification of drag shows” and “baseless claims of ‘child grooming’ by LGBTQ+ people.”
The Heritage Foundation’s media arm The Daily Signal notes that the ADL email used verbiage expressed on its website that describes conservative voices against child gender transitions and sexuality education in the classroom as “Online Amplifiers of Anti-LGBTQ+ Extremism.”
The ADL names figures such as Libs of TikTok’s Chaya Raichik, the group Gays Against Groomers, The Blaze media outlet, conservative commentator Matt Walsh, and cultural critic Christopher Rufo.
“ADL is advocating for government partners to strengthen laws against perpetrators of online hate, as well as consulting with law enforcement partners to act on online hate speech that incites violence and/or credible threats,” the ADL blog post declares.
Link: ADL Recommends Law Enforcement Investigate Prominent Critics of Child Gender Transitions
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