CVS Fired Staffer After Refusing to Accommodate Religious Objections to Contraceptives

A lawsuit accuses the pharmacy chain of religious discrimination against a nurse practitioner

ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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."