Pharmacy Daily | US jury backs right not to dispense

A US pharmacist did not discriminate against a woman by refusing to dispense the emergency contractive pill (ECP) due to "personal reasons", a jury has ruled.

Lawyers for pharmacist and pastor, George Badeaux, welcomed the decision on Fri, saying "medical professionals should be free to practice their professions in line with their beliefs".

Plaintiff, Andrea Anderson, who launched a civil case against Badeaux and his employer, McGregor Thrifty White Pharmacy, in 2019, after she was forced to make a 100 mile round trip during a snow storm to access the ECP.

The mother of five, from the rural Minnesota town of McGregor, had sought access to the ECP after a condom broke during intercourse, NBC News reported.

The jury was told that Badeaux said that dispensing the medication would violate his "beliefs" and warned Anderson against going to a neighbouring town to have the prescription filled, but declined to tell her where she might be able to gain access to the ECP.

Lawyers for the St Paul-based Gender Justice, group who represented Anderson, pledged to appeal the decision.

"To be clear, the law in Minnesota prohibits sex discrimination and that includes refusing to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception," Gender Justice Legal Director, Jess Braverman said.

"The jury was not deciding on what the law is, they were deciding the facts of what happened here in this particular case.

"We will appeal this decision and won't stop fighting until Minnesotans can get the healthcare they need without the interference of providers putting their own personal beliefs ahead of their legal and ethical obligations to their patients."

While the jury backed Badeaux's right to refuse to dispense the ECP, because of his beliefs, it found that Anderson should be entitled to damages of more than $36,000 for the emotional damage caused by the decision.