Pro-Life Walgreens Pharmacist Refuses to Fill Prescription for Abortion Drug

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Jun 25, 2018   |   1:16PM   |   Washington, DC

A pro-life pharmacist at Walgreens is being harassed by abortion activists for allegedly refusing to fill a prescription for a common abortion drug.

Nicole Arteaga, of Peoria, Arizona, made the allegations publicly online and shared pro-life pharmacist Brian Hreniuc’s contact information prominently in her complaint, KVOA News 4 reports. Her Facebook post has gone viral.

Earlier this month, Arteaga said she was two-months pregnant with a wanted child when doctors gave her some bad news.

“Unfortunately on Tuesday we found out the baby’s development had stopped and I ultimately will have a miscarriage,” she wrote. “Dr gave me two options D&C or prescription medication. I opted for prescription.”

The doctor wrote her a prescription to induce the miscarriage (also commonly used as an abortion drug) and sent the prescription to Walgreens. There, Arteaga claims, Hreniuc refused to fill it and humiliated her in front of a line of customers.

She continued: “I get it we all have our beliefs. But what he failed to understand is this isn’t the situation I had hoped for, this isn’t something I wanted. … He has no idea what its like to want nothing more than to carry a child to full term and be unable to do so. If you have gone thru a miscarriage you know the pain and emotional roller it can be. I left Walgreens in tears, ashamed and feeling humiliated by a man who knows nothing of my struggles but feels it is his right to deny medication prescribed to me by my doctor.”

Arteaga said she filed a complaint with the Arizona Board of Pharmacy.

KVOA reports the pharmacist did send her prescription to another Walgreens that filled it for her, something Arteaga later acknowledged in an updated post.

Hreniuc has not made any public comments about the matter, but presumably he objected because Arteaga’s unborn baby may still have been alive and the drugs could have ended the baby’s life rather than allow him/her to die naturally in a miscarriage. However, details about the situation are not clear, and this is just speculation.

Walgreens apologized to Arteaga for how her situation was handled.

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“After learning what happened, we reached out to the patient and apologized for how the situation was handled,” the company said in a statement.

The company also said it protects its pharmacists’ conscience rights by allowing them to “step away” from filling a prescription if they have a “moral objection.”

“At the same time, they are also required to refer the prescription to another pharmacist or manager on duty to meet the patient’s needs in a timely manner,” the company noted.

Arizona law protects medical workers’ conscience rights:

“A pharmacy, hospital or health professional, or any employee of a pharmacy, hospital or health professional, who states in writing an objection to abortion, abortion medication, emergency contraception or any medication or device intended to inhibit or prevent implantation of a fertilized ovum on moral or religious grounds is not required to facilitate or participate in the provision of an abortion, abortion medication, emergency contraception or any medication or device intended to inhibit or prevent implantation of a fertilized ovum…”

However, Hreniuc is the target of numerous attack articles on the New York Times, the BBC, Teen Vogue, BuzzFeed and other news outlets because he followed his conscience. People also have been flooding Walgreens with comments on social media demanding that Hreniuc be fired.