Keller CVS employee says she was fired for religious belief, not prescribing contraception
A North Texas nurse practitioner has filed a charge of discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against CVS Pharmacy, which she says terminated her after she sought a religious exemption from prescribing contraception.
CVS had granted her the accommodation the previous six years before she was fired on Oct. 31, 2021, from CVS MinuteClinic in Keller, according to the charge.
Robyn Strader of Fort Worth filed the charge on Tuesday in the Dallas District Office of the EEOC.
CVS Pharmacy corporate officials in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, did not return messages on the issue.
“The corporate canceling of faithful religious Americans like Robyn must end,” said Christine Pratt, counsel for First Liberty Institute, in a Tuesday news release. “CVS accommodated Robyn for more than six years without any problems. It’s bad medicine to force religious health care professionals to choose between their faith and their job, especially at a time when we need as many health care professionals as we can get.”
First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit legal organization, is representing Strader.
Strader began at CVS MinuteClinic in Keller in 2015, working under a religious exemption from prescribing contraception, according to the complaint.
Strader is a member of a Baptist Church, and said that she cannot participate in facilitating an abortion or contraceptive use, according to the discrimination charge.
If someone requested such a prescription from her, Strader would refer that person to another nurse practitioner at the Keller clinic or to another CVS MinuteClinic located about two miles away.
For six years, Strader was granted an exemption from prescribing contraception because of her religious beliefs, she said.
In August 2021, CVS announced that it was changing its policies about pregnancy prevention services, and Strader was told on Aug. 28, 2021, that she had no religious exemptions on file.
According to the discrimination charge, Strader said she wrote CVS in August 2021, September 2021 and October 2021 asking for confirmation that the company would continue to honor her religious exemption and asked for a religious exemption not to receive a COVID vaccine.
On Sept. 23, 2021, Strader’s manager told Strader she would fired on Oct. 31 if she did not change her religious beliefs about prescribing contraception, according to the complaint.
Stader was granted her religious exemption on the COVID vaccine on Oct. 21, but CVS officials did not respond to her request about an exemption for prescribing contraception, she said.
Strader said no one from CVS discussed the issue, but her manager continued to pressure her to abandon her religious beliefs, saying, “You are doing this to yourself,” according to the charge.
In November, after she was fired, CVS officials informed Strader that they were investigating claims she had made in a letter, but a few days later, CVS terminated her employment benefits.
CVS officials noted on Nov. 28 that they had concluded their investigation, and that Strader had failed to properly request a religious exemption and that accommodating her would cause CVS undue hardship, the complaint says.
This story was originally published February 9, 2022 at 10:50 AM.
