Minnesota pharmacists who refused to administer gender-affirming drugs sue Walgreens

Two Minnesota pharmacists who refused to administer gender-affirming drugs to patients are suing Walgreens and the state’s pharmacy board, claiming they were denied the right to refuse patient prescriptions that conflict with their religious beliefs.

Gender-affirming drugs are hormones or hormone-blockers that create physical changes in the body to align with the person’s gender identity. Rarely prescribed in the U.S., the medications have nonetheless become a flashpoint amid a wider cultural and political debate about transgender youth.

The federal complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Minnesota, alleges Walgreens fired Rachel Scott of Mahtomedi and drastically reduced the hours of Dora Ig-Izevbekhai of Woodbury after the two “Bible believing” Christians submitted formal requests for religious accommodations to not prescribe the drugs.

According to the complaint, Walgreens said their refusal to dispense the drugs over religious objections was illegal under Minnesota law. It further said the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy refused to clarify its administrative rules.

The pharmacists are calling for the court to declare the law permits Walgreens to accommodate their religious convictions or alternatively declare Minnesota is unconstitutionally regulating its pharmacists.

“These chains have multiple pharmacists and somebody is always in a position to administer these medications — maybe not at that instant — but at another day, at another location,” Douglas Seaton, the plaintiffs’ attorney at the Upper Midwest Law Center in Minnetonka, said in an interview. “So it’s always feasible for people to be able to receive the medications they’re seeking without trampling on others’ religious rights.”

A Walgreens spokesperson declined to comment Tuesday as litigation is pending, and the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy did not immediately respond to messages requesting comment.

After completing school and exams, Scott started her role as a pharmacist in a Woodbury Walgreens in 2015. She attends church regularly, striving to “glorify God and follow the Bible in every area of her life,” the complaint said.

She does not dispense drugs used to cause an abortion due to her faith, the complaint said. She additionally believes, the complaint alleged, “attempting to medically alter a person’s biological sex contradicts God’s design, and that she therefore must not cooperate with or facilitate such efforts.”

During her years as a pharmacist, Scott made arrangements so that another worker would fill a prescription if she believed it violated her beliefs, the complaint said.

But on maternity leave in 2023, the complaint said, “she reflected and grew in her faith,” concluding she needed to ask the company to formalize her accommodations.

Walgreens allegedly responded that Minnesota law does not allow pharmacists to refuse to administer gender-affirming drugs on religious grounds, denying the request. The company told Scott it would stop scheduling her if she did not administer the drugs.

Due to her faith, she does not dispense drugs used to cause abortions or administer some vaccines that the complaint claims “were made using tissue from aborted fetuses.” Groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics say vaccines do not contain fetal cells.

Ig-Izevbekhai claims gender-affirming care “contradicts God’s design,” and she refuses to fulfill prescriptions for drugs facilitating gender transitions. For years, she had other pharmacists fill these prescriptions, but a manager asked her to fill out a religious exemption form in late 2022, the complaint continued.

Walgreens denied the request, citing the pharmacy board’s regulations on religious exemptions. Since Jan. 2024, the chain has allowed the pharmacist to work part time. She has worked in Wisconsin locations since early last year as the chain agreed that the law there allows for her accommodations.