Posted on 06/02/2006 3:19:04 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
MADISON, WI (AP) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. acted appropriately by firing a Catholic pharmacist who refused to interact with patients seeking birth control prescriptions, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
U.S. District Judge John Shabaz dismissed a lawsuit brought by Neil Noesen, who claimed he was fired last summer at a Wal-Mart store in Onalaska, WI out of religious discrimination. The lawsuit also named Medical Staffing Network, a staffing agency that placed Noesen at the store as a temporary pharmacist.
Shabaz said Wal-Mart and Medical Staffing Network accommodated Noesen's religious opposition to contraception by having other pharmacists fill prescriptions. But he said Noesen went too far by putting customers who called about birth control on hold indefinitely and refusing to get service for those who showed up in person without notifying other pharmacists.
Noesen's firing was justified because he was disruptive and failed to meet Wal-Mart's expectations, the judge wrote in his 12-page ruling.
Wal-Mart spokesman John Simley said the company was pleased with the ruling.
"Under the circumstances, this is about the best possible solution you could ask for," he said. "These cases are rare but when they do happen we are careful to make accommodations. We also have a responsibility to customers to ensure that their prescriptions are filled."
Stephanie Adler, an Orlando lawyer who represented Medical Staffing Network, said Shabaz's ruling was among the first in the country dealing with religious accommodations for pharmacists.
"It demonstrates there has to be a balance between accommodating someone's religious beliefs while at the same time providing a service and allowing people access to medical care," Adler said. "Noesen believes that his personal beliefs are more important than a patient's right to have access to legally prescribed medication."
The state Pharmacy Examining Board sanctioned Noesen last year after he refused to fill a contraceptive prescription or transfer it to another pharmacy while he was a temporary pharmacist at a Menomonie Kmart in 2002. The board reprimanded him and forced him to attend ethics classes, saying he could not stand in the way of the woman's care.
The case prompted Republican lawmakers to introduce a bill prohibiting state regulators from punishing pharmacists who refuse to dispense birth control but the plan failed to win approval in either chamber.
Adler said the staffing agency was aware of his religious beliefs when he was hired and signed an agreement allowing him to decline to fill birth control prescriptions or answer inquiries about them. But she said he became a disruption when he repeatedly failed to find other pharmacists to help the patients after just five days on the job.
Noesen, of St. Paul, Minn., argued the agreement he signed allowed him to simply walk away from them and that his boss was pressuring him to help customers seeking birth control.
When Wal-Mart asked him to leave the store, he refused and was eventually dragged out in a wheelchair by police in Onalaska, a city of 15,000 near La Crosse in western Wisconsin, according to the judge's ruling. Last month, he was convicted of resisting arrest but acquitted on a disorderly conduct charge stemming from that incident.
Noesen, 32, represented himself in the federal lawsuit filed earlier this year. There was no phone listing available for him in the St. Paul area.
Noesen's license to practice in Wisconsin expired Wednesday, according to the Department of Regulation and Licensing. He has so far failed to provide proof that he took the ethics classes or pay back the $20,767 cost of the disciplinary action against him, said Steve Gloe, general counsel of the agency. His license cannot be renewed until he pays the costs.
If your religion or beliefs interfere with your professional performance, you shouldn't be in that field. A doctor doesn't have a right to refuse a blood transfusion because his religion proscribes it. Maybe someone thinks that Viagra is immoral because its sole purpose is to enhance hedonistic pleasure.. I don't like either, but I'd rather see contraceptive use than baby-killing.
Appreciate your understanding :)
Re: "...The case prompted Republican lawmakers to introduce a bill prohibiting state regulators from punishing pharmacists who refuse to dispense birth control but the plan failed to win approval in either chamber.
Adler said the staffing agency was aware of his religious beliefs when he was hired and signed an agreement allowing him to decline to fill birth control prescriptions or answer inquiries about them. But she said he became a disruption when he repeatedly failed to find other pharmacists to help the patients after just five days on the job.
Noesen, of St. Paul, Minn., argued the agreement he signed allowed him to simply walk away from them and that his boss was pressuring him to help customers seeking birth control..."
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