Over the 4th of July weekend, Jessica Pentz and her husband, Nate, were vacationing in Wisconsin when she realized she left her oral contraception at home. She stopped at a Walgreens drugstore to pick up condoms but the clerk refused to sell condoms “because of my faith.”
“Oh, I can’t sell those to you,” the clerk at the Wisconsin Walmart told Jessica Pentz, a Minneapolis woman, when she tried to buy condoms.
“Well, we can sell that to you,” he clarified. “But I will not, because of my faith.” https://t.co/ergfBjabkd
— Star Tribune (@StarTribune) July 10, 2022
The clerk, named John, clarified to Pentz: “Well, we can sell that to you, but I will not, because of my faith.”
He added, “I’m sorry, this is what my faith demands.”
“You’re not sorry,” Pentz told him as a line of customers backed up behind her.
More from the Star Tribune:
The clerk waved his manager over, as Pentz waited with her perfectly legal purchases that were none of his business. He offered to ring up everything that wasn’t a condom. She declined.
So the clerk asked his manager to ring him completely out of the register, to avoid any digital contact with a condom, Pentz said, and walked away with a smirk.
Asked for comment, Walgreen Co. responded: “Our company policy allows team members to step away from completing a transaction to which they have a moral objection and refer the transaction to a fellow team member or manager who will complete the customer’s request.”
Husband Nate took the story to Twitter where folks were very interested in the incident especially in light of the recent reversal of Roe v. Wade by SCOTUS.
Jess, “it is none of your business.”
“I can get a manager here, do you want me to finish checking out these things”.
Jess: “Not from you!”
2/x— Nate Pentz (@natepentz) July 3, 2022
One of the men in line behind Pentz found the couple on Twitter. He confirmed John refused to sell condoms and backed up her entire story.
Twitter is wild. Proud to be married to Jess. pic.twitter.com/ZGkJ3tQe9N
— Nate Pentz (@natepentz) July 5, 2022