Bus driver refuses to take woman to Planned Parenthood

Why? Religious reasons, of course:

A former bus driver has sued the Capital Area Rural Transportation System, charging that the nine-county transit service discriminated against him based on his religion when he was fired for refusing to drive women to a Planned Parenthood clinic in January.

Edwin Graning, who was hired as a driver on April 1, 2009, was "concerned that he might be transporting a client to undergo an abortion" when he was assigned to take two women to Planned Parenthood, according to his lawsuit, filed this week in U.S. District Court in Austin.

Graning is seeking reinstatement, back pay and undisclosed damages for pain, suffering and emotion distress. He is represented by lawyers from the American Center for Law & Justice, founded by evangelical Christian leader Pat Robertson.

Joanna Salinas, an Austin lawyer who represents the Capital Area Rural Transportation System, said, "CARTS denies that it discriminated against Mr. Graning because of his religion, and we are looking forward to responding to the lawsuit in court."

The system, operated under an agreement among participating counties, offers bus service on fixed routes and through requested pickup for residents in the nonurban areas of Travis and Williamson counties and in all of Bastrop, Burnet, Blanco, Caldwell, Fayette, Hays and Lee counties.

After he was dispatched to take the women to Planned Parenthood in January, Graning called his supervisor "and told her that, in good conscience, he could not take someone to have an abortion," his lawsuit said. The women's names, their location and the clinic location were not included in the lawsuit. Planned Parenthood also provides health care services unrelated to abortion.

Graning, a Kyle resident, is "an ordained Christian minister who is opposed to abortion," the lawsuit said.

His supervisor, who is not named, responded by saying, "Then you are resigning," the suit said.

Graning denied he was resigning and was later told to drive his bus back to the yard and then was fired, the lawsuit said.

It is not religious discrimination if you are refusing to do your job. If you were a Muslim bus driver you would be required to take people to a bar, and if you were a Jewish bus driver you would be required to take people to a butcher that sells pork. If you don't want to perform your duties, don't pick a job that's going to require you to act against your religious beliefs. The same goes for pharmacists who don't want to provide birth control because of their own moral convictions - don't become a pharmacist if you can't be a pharmacist because of your ethics.

Why can't some religious people understand the concept that their religious rights end where my rights begin? You can feel free to believe in whatever you want. You cannot, however, force me to believe the same thing or follow the same rules. And that's exactly what's happening in situations like this - religious people are denying services to people so those people don't do something "immoral." It's not the bus driver who's getting an abortion, or the pharmacist who's taking the birth control. They're policing what you do with their religious standards.

Not to mention that only 3% of Planned Parenthood services are abortion services. From pure statistical likelihood, it's more probably that this man has stopped these women from getting Pap smears, breast examinations, STD tests, or birth control. Good job, sir.

(Via Religion Clause)