A Dallas-based federal judge has ordered Southwest Airlines to rehire Charlene Carter, a flight attendant the company terminated in March 2017 after she objected to the use of union dues to promote abortion.
Carter shared her concerns about this misuse of union dues in social media posts in early 2017. She sent an email to Union President Audrey Stone expressing support for a national Right to Work bill, but Carter was soon ordered to attend a meeting with company leadership to discuss “Facebook posts they had seen.”
“Southwest deemed her social media posts highlighting her Pro-Life beliefs as a form of harassment,” the Christian Post reports. “A week after Carter’s meeting with superiors, the company terminated her.”
In July 2022, a jury awarded Carter $5.1 million in damages, but she wanted to return to the job she loved. She continued her legal battle.
“I want to go back, hold my head up high and say, ‘You can’t do this anymore,’” Carter told the Epoch Times. “I’d like to see us bring back what the original Southwest was, or at least some form of that.”
Texas Judge Brantley Starr sided with Carter and ordered the company to reinstate her. He wrote in his decision Monday, “Bags fly free with Southwest. But free speech didn’t fly at all with Southwest in this case.”
Carter promised God that she would never be quiet about defending Life after she found forgiveness and healing from her own abortion. For many years, she suffered from depression and believed she was being punished by God for aborting her baby. Everything changed for Carter when she experienced Christ’s mercy and forgiveness at a church event in 2007.
Charlene Carter stands as a powerful witness for Life and can inspire Christians everywhere to stand up for the truth, no matter the cost.