American Center for Law and Justice<\/a><\/p>\n(Riverside, CA) \u2013 The American Center\u00a0for Law and Justice, an international public interest law firm, today filed suit in U.S.\u00a0District Court in Riverside, California on behalf of a health care worker charging that\u00a0she was fired from her job as a nurse for Riverside County, California after she refused\u00a0to dispense medication known as a \u201cmorning-after\u201d pill designed to end\u00a0\u00a0pregnancies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis case centers on the rights of our\u00a0\u00a0client to hold religious beliefs and have those beliefs accommodated by her\u00a0\u00a0employer,\u201d said Frank Manion, Senior Regional Counsel of the ACLJ who is representing\u00a0the nurse. \u201cOur client did not want to dispense medication that she believes places\u00a0her in a position to participate in an abortion. It is our position that her deeply held\u00a0religious beliefs were ignored by her employer and it is our belief that she was wrongly fired because of those beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ACLJ filed suit today in U.S. District\u00a0Court in Riverside on behalf of Michelle Diaz, who worked as a Clinic Health Nurse at the\u00a0Riverside Neighborhood Health Center. The complaint contends that in March 1999, Diaz and\u00a0other health professionals expressed their concerns to management about dispensing the\u00a0so-called \u201cmorning-after\u201d pill \u2013 medication designed to end pregnancies.\u00a0\u00a0The lawsuit states that Diaz told her supervisor that her deeply held religious beliefs\u00a0prevented her from distributing the medication because she believed she would be participating in an abortion.<\/p>\n
The complaint contends that the Director of\u00a0Public Health for Riverside County informed her that if she did not sign a document that\u00a0required her to dispense what the county called \u201cemergency contraception\u201d which\u00a0included the \u201cmorning-after\u201d pill and other pregnancy-ending medications, she\u00a0\u00a0would no longer be able to work at the clinic. Diaz did not sign the document and wrote a\u00a0letter to the Director of Public Health explaining that her religious beliefs prevented\u00a0her from doing so.<\/p>\n
According to the suit, in June 1999, Diaz was\u00a0contacted by news reporters concerning the \u201cmorning-after\u201d pill controversy and explained her position to the media. The suit contends that on June 23, 1999 \u2013 just\u00a0days after speaking with the media \u2013 she was told that she was being terminated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis case may represent a new kind of\u00a0religious discrimination in the workplace as health care professionals strive to follow\u00a0their consciences as they begin dispensing new pregnancy-ending drugs like RU-486,\u201d\u00a0said Manion. \u201cA person\u2019s religious beliefs must be respected and accommodated in the workplace. To do anything less is simply wrong and unconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawsuit contends that the action taken\u00a0against Diaz violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution along\u00a0with provisions in the California Constitution. The complaint contends the County violated\u00a0her constitutional rights of free speech and violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of\u00a01964 by refusing to accommodate her religious beliefs and terminating her employment.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the suit contends that Diaz\u00a0has suffered and continues to suffer financial loss from the termination and damage to her\u00a0 professional reputation. The suit requests that the court find the actions of the\u00a0defendants illegal and unconstitutional and requests unspecified damages. The suit also\u00a0requests a trial by jury.<\/p>\n
The suit names as defendants the County of\u00a0Riverside Health Services Agency, Kenneth Cohen, the Director of the Agency, and Dr. Gary\u00a0Feldman, who serves as Director of Public Health and as the Public Health Officer for\u00a0Riverside County.<\/p>\n
The ACLJ is being assisted in this case by Robert Tyler of the firm, Tyler, Dorsa & Eldridge in Temecula, CA.<\/p>\n
The American Center for Law and Justice is an\u00a0 international public interest law firm that specializes in constitutional law and focuses\u00a0on pro-life, pro-family, and pro-liberty issues. The ACLJ is headquartered in Virginia\u00a0Beach, VA.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
News Release American Center for Law and Justice (Riverside, CA) \u2013 The American Center\u00a0for Law and Justice, an international public interest law firm, today filed suit in U.S.\u00a0District Court in Riverside, California on behalf of a health care worker charging that\u00a0she was fired from her job as a nurse for Riverside County, California after she … Continue reading “ACLJ files religious discrimination suit against Ca. health agency over “morning after” pill”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5432,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[217,247,10,19,28],"tags":[95,598,600,601,597,261],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-2951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lawsuits","category-morning-after-pill","category-news-releases","category-repression-of-conscience","category-usa","tag-california","tag-frank-manion","tag-gary-feldman","tag-kenneth-cohen","tag-michelle-diaz","tag-nurses"],"yoast_head":"\r\nACLJ files religious discrimination suit against Ca. health agency over "morning after" pill - 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