Missouri Pharmacist Fired by Target for Not Dispensing Morning After Pill 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 26, 2006
St. Louis, MO (LifeNews.com) — Pharmacist Heather Williams has been fired from her job at a local Target store after refusing to fill a prescription for the morning after pill. The firing came after Target received boycott threats from Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business.
During the five years of her employment Williams conscientiously objected to being required to dispense the morning-after pill, a drug that can sometimes cause an abortion depending on when it’s taken.
Target had always accommodated her objection and dispensed the drug to their customers without her involvement.
"I feel really hurt, because I was always reliable," Williams said, speaking out for the first time this week after her firing in December. "I loved my job. I did."
"It’s moral and religious," Williams saidof her firing and her Baptist beliefs. "I believe life begins with two cells and I don’t want to be part of the end of that life."
Americans United for Life, a pro-life legal group, has filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaint on Williams’ behalf alleging that Target discriminated against her based upon her religious beliefs and desire to exercise her conscience.
"This incident illustrates the spreading intolerance that groups like Planned Parenthood have for those who disagree with their agenda," AUL attorney Edward Martin said.
"No longer are they content to promote their views in their clinics and state legislatures. Now they want private businesses to fire innocent employees who just don’t want to be involved in their agenda," he added.
Martin said Williams’ dismissal should put pressure on Missouri lawmakers to approve legislation protecting the rights of pharmacists not to be forced to dispense drugs that can cause abortions or violate their religious beliefs.
"Without such laws, special interest groups will continue to work to overturn policies in private companies, breeding intolerance and coercion," Martin explained.
The Target action follows the firing of at least five Walgreens pharmacists in Illinois after Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich issued a rule forcing pharmacies to dispense the morning-after pill. AUL is involved in legal action in that situation as well.
Heather Williams has been a pharmacist for more than 16 years, five of those years with Target and lives in St. Charles, Missouri.
Related web sites:
Americans United for Life – https://www.aul.org
