If a Minnesota court finds that a woman’s request to fill a prescription for emergency contraception in 2019 was denied, it will determine whether her human rights were violated.
Andrea Anderson, a McGregor mother of five, filed a lawsuit under the Minnesota Human Rights Act after the pharmacist rejected her request on the grounds of his religious convictions.
The state forbids discrimination on the basis of sex, including when it comes to pregnancy and childbirth-related matters.
The U.S. House passed a bill this week that would guarantee the right to contraception, sparking a nationwide political discussion concerning the legality of contraception under federal law at the time of the civil trial.
Democrats campaigned for the legislation out of fear that a conservative U.S. Supreme Court, which has already eliminated federal rights to abortion, may go farther and restrict the use of contraceptives.
In Aitkin County, jury selection was slated to begin on Monday, and the case was anticipated to be finished by the end of the week.
According to the Star Tribune, Anderson visited the Thrifty White drugstore in McGregor in January 2019 with a prescription for a morning-after medication.
She was informed by longtime pharmacist George Badeaux that, due to his views, he could not fill the prescription, but that, barring a snowfall, a pharmacist working the following day might be able to do so.
Anderson eventually travelled more than 100 miles round trip in icy driving conditions to fill her medication at a pharmacy in Brainerd.
Badeaux cannot bring up federal constitutional issues like freedom of religion at the trial, according to Aitkin County District Judge David Hermerding, because the lawsuit was brought under the state’s Human Rights Act.
The court stated that the jury’s decision was not based on the defendant’s constitutional rights.
If he purposefully misled, obscured, and prevented Ms. Anderson from receiving emergency contraception is at issue.
The judge decided that Badeaux might share with the jury his religious convictions, “but not in a way that misleads the jury into believing this is a religious freedom contest.”
A pharmaceutical company requested approval to sell a birth control pill over the counter in the United States for the first time last month.
In the midst of legal and political wrangling over women’s reproductive health, HRA Pharma’s application presents a high-stakes decision for health regulators.
The business claimed that the date had nothing to do with the recent Roe v. Wade judgement by the Supreme Court.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision, women all around the United States have started stockpiling emergency contraceptives.