Nicole Mone Arteaga wanted nothing more in life than to carry her baby to full term. After a string of miscarriages, however, her latest pregnancy wasn't going well. Every week, the Arizona mother went in for a new ultrasound, hoping and praying to see a healthy-looking baby.
At nine weeks pregnant, the doctor confirmed the fetus had stopped developing and Nicole's body was preparing to miscarry. Heartbroken beyond belief, Nicole was given a prescription medication that would help induce bleeding and discharge in the comfort of her own home.
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Nicole dropped off the prescription and returned to pick it up the following day. That's where things took an even more devastating turn.
The pharmacist refused to fill the prescription, leaving her helpless and humiliated. "I stood at the mercy of this pharmacist explaining my situation in front of my 7-year-old, and five customers standing behind only to be denied because of his ethical beliefs," she wrote on Facebook.
Walgreens said in a statement to CNN, "After learning what happened, we reached out to the patient and apologized for how the situation was handled. To respect the sincerely held beliefs of our pharmacists while at the same time meeting the needs of our patients, our policy allows pharmacists to step away from filling a prescription for which 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."
In mere days, Nicole's Facebook post describing the incident went viral with tens of thousands of shares.
