Pat Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice recently provided legal defense for a public bus driver who was fired for refusing to take a woman to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas back in January 2010. According to the lawsuit, he was "concerned that he might be transporting a client to undergo an abortion." #
Edwin Graning, a bus driver and ordained Christian minister in Austin, has been awarded $21,000 from the Capital Area Rural Transportation System after being fired for refusing to do his job. The Center for Law and Justice has called the settlement "a win for religious accommodation." #
The woman Graning was hired to transport did not mention she was having an abortion. Graning assumed she was going to Planned Parenthood for that reason. Even though most of Planned Parenthood's services are not abortions, it has become popular as of late to exaggerate the role abortion plays in Planned Parenthood's services. #
According to the lawsuit filed by the Center for Law and Justice on behalf of Graning, Graning told his supervisor that he "in good conscience, could not take someone to have an abortion," after being dispatched to take the woman to a Planned Parenthood clinic early last year. #
According to Austin Legal, the attorneys handling the case advised the Capital Area Rural Transportation System to settle instead of fighting the lawsuit against them because "it would cost a lot more in attorney fees than it would cost to settle." #
According to the Center for Law and Justice's website, the organization filed a complaint, which "alleged that firing Graning without even attempting to accommodate his religious beliefs was a violation of his rights under the Civil Rights Act of 1964." #
"[The settlement] is not just a great resolution to Graning's case," the website says, "it's an important victory for the rights of conscience everywhere. It sends the clear and unequivocal message that pro-life employees cannot be discriminated against based on their religious beliefs." #
The general manager of the transportation service said that now officials have to make it clear to drivers that when they are hired they "have a job to do and don't decide what destinations are," Austin Legal reported. #
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