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Student Receives Pharmacy Degree – Thanks to PJI

June 11, 2025

SALEM, Ore. – Once faced with choosing between her faith and a pharmacy degree during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Christian graduate student in Oregon is finally receiving her doctorate in pharmacy (“PharmD”) – thanks in part to the Pacific Justice Institute.

“Nancy,” who has asked that her real name not be used due to privacy concerns, enrolled in a four-year PharmD program jointly and collaboratively operated by Oregon State University (“Oregon State”) and Oregon Health & Science University (“OHSU”) during the 2020-21 school year. She spent the first two years of the program at Oregon State.

During her second year, Oregon’s then-governor, Kate Brown, issued an executive order generally requiring all persons in healthcare settings, including students in university healthcare programs, to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The executive order did, however, allow for exceptions for those unable to receive COVID vaccines for religious reasons. Because she holds religious objections to abortion – which she believes to be murder – and the manufacturers of the only COVID vaccines then available in the United States all used cells from aborted babies in the research and development of their vaccines, Nancy was unable to receive one.

Set to transfer to OHSU for the final two years of her PharmD program in the fall of 2022, Nancy sought religious exceptions that would allow her not only to continue her studies, but to participate in a paid internship at OHSU that would advance her career prospects. A provider of abortions and related services, OHSU had openly declared it would deny religious exceptions to students and employees who sought them based on COVID vaccines’ connection to abortion.

OHSU thus denied Nancy a religious exception. Unable to transfer, she had to take a year off from the PharmD program and explore her options, including transferring to school in another state and possibly quitting school altogether despite incurring significant student loan debt.

“The COVID-19 pandemic had a way of bringing out government entities’ hostility toward religion,” said Ray D. Hacke, one of PJI’s Oregon-based staff attorneys. “That was especially true at OHSU, which openly and staunchly supports abortion rights.

“However, the Supreme Court has made clear that the U.S. Constitution’s Free Exercise Clause protects against government hostility toward religion, and that rule applies even in a pandemic. What OHSU did to Nancy was wrong, and it needed to be held accountable for it.”

After Nancy reached out to PJI, Hacke filed suit on Nancy’s behalf in January 2023. Soon thereafter, with Nancy needing to make some quick decisions concerning her future, Hacke moved for a preliminary injunction that would get Nancy reinstated as a student at OHSU.

Within weeks, OHSU settled, reinstating Nancy as a student for the 2023-24 school year. Now, two years later, Nancy will be attending graduation ceremonies at both Oregon State and OHSU to celebrate the completion of her PharmD degree.

“In hailing Nancy’s achievement, we’re celebrating not only what she accomplished in the classroom or the great things she’ll do in the future, but a victory for religious liberty,” PJI President Brad Dacus said. “OHSU demonstrated unnecessary and unconstitutional hostility toward Nancy here. Thankfully, the university repented and did the right thing by getting Nancy back into school quickly and letting her complete her studies. Hopefully, OHSU has learned its lesson moving forward.”

from the desk of

Brad Dacus

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