Hey, gang – looks like we’re implementing some of those “mandatory conservation measures” at the end of a pink slip right here in America.
The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Catholic nurse who was forced to participate in an abortion, despite voicing her moral objections.
Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo, a nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, was instructed to assist in a late second-trimester abortion for a woman 22 weeks into her pregnancy.
The hospital had known of the nurse’s religious objections to abortion since she was hired in 2004.
Cenzon-DeCarlo reminded her supervisors of her religious objections, but was told that if she did not participate, she would be charged with “insubordination and patient abandonment,” which could result in disciplinary action and the possible loss of her job and nursing license.
The hospital trys to explain this away by saying it was an “emergency” but the hospital itself categorized this case as “Category II” which means the operation needed to take place within six hours, surely enough time to find a nurse who has no moral qualms about assisting with an abortion.
One would think that even a pro-choice advocate would be outraged by this as this action is the antithesis of “choice”. Don’t count on it, though, as the abortion-industrial complex makes fundamentalist evangelicals and Catholics look as soft as a bag of wet mice when it comes to advancing an agenda.
Cassy Fiano, blogging at Hot Air, rightly likens this to cruel and unusual punishment as the hospital has known of Cenzo-DeCarlo’s position on this for years.
Stand by for more of this trampling of conscience provisions put in place by President Bush but since stripped by a man who voted three times against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act.
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18 comments:
I'm not sure if I'm more shocked by the hospital or the nurse for actually participating anyway. How pro-life could she be if she was willing to defy her faith to stay employed? This is a tricky one.
She shouldn't have become a nurse then.
Sarah, perhaps she is a single mother who'd be facing economic hardship if whe was canned.
Regardless, Cenzo-DeCarlo's committment to her faith is not what's on trial here.
Harrison, so unless you are pro-choice or agree to assist in abortions, you shouldn't be a nurse? To quote your friend, Joe Markowitz when confronted with a bad idea, I say, "That's an option."
I understand that it would be a financially terrifying prospect to lose one's job. But if you believe it is murder? We have time when we are faced with the ugliest decisions in the world, and have to rise to the occasion. My husband and I had long talks about this sort of thing before he became a police officer. If she had refused to participate in the abortion, I'd be the first one donating to her defense fund to fight the hospital for her job. But I don't really buy that she's pro-life.
I'm not excusing the hospital for it's policy either...it is a gross trend in a dangerous direction. But the battle would be more compelling if she were fighting for her job, no complaining after the fact. The case for life needs champions, not victims.
The day this government asks my husband to confiscate the guns of law abiding citizens is the day he quits. We will walk away from the income, pension, life insurance, all of it.
Sarah, points well-taken.
Harrison, forgive my snotty tone. I just wanted to emphasize there is a heckuva lot more to the nursing profession than assisting with abortions - and even in that there is legal protection for refusing to assist with them.
The so-called professionals at Mt. Sanai hospital are morally bankrupt and repugnant, and seems to violate the conscience clause.
Sarah makes a good point. If the nurse felt morally bound by her conscience not to participate and does believe abortion is murder she should have refused to participate in the abortion. Later on, if she lost her job she could have filed a lawsuit.
These pro-choicers are so anti-choice.
You're in the medical field, right? Abortions are a medical issue, right? You might one day have to help with one, right? Don't like it, get a new line of work. It's not different than a doctor refusing to prescribe birth control because they are Catholic and are against that.
Jobs are jobs... you're there to do it. Save your politics for your private life.
Since when does choosing to go into the medical field hinge upon your position on abortion?
Do you think a doctor could be ordered to perform an abortion were he just walking down the hallway?
Talk about a purity test?
It is certainly not merely a political issue. Saying "save your politics for your personal life" in this context is a patently ridiculous statement.
So if a pharmacist is Catholic they should not dispense birth control and this is okay? No difference.
Harrison,
Going against your moral conscience to kill a baby and going against your conscience to distribute a pill that prevents a baby from being created is totally different. But, you have proven that pro-choicers are really anti-choicers since you and ilk only want to control our decision and make that moral choice for everyone. You only really want to give people one option which can result in one outcome. You have proven that pro-choicers are the most heartless and immoral people in the world.
That should be the pharmacist's call not yours. As it should be the nurse's without undue coercion from her supervisors.
Dean,
You are right. In both those cases, it is wrong to force anyone to do something that goes against their moral conscience.
Obviously we disagree. If you are "morally against" something then how is an abortion different from a birth control pill? Is one supposedly more morally repugnant than another? Wrong is wrong, yes?
As a customer I do not think I should have to deal with someone refusing to perform a service for which they have been hired due to their moral considerations. That is not my problem.
As I said, if they don't like it, then the onus is on them to move to a job where their moral beliefs are not going to be compromised. Unless asking somebody to do something would break the law they have no business not doing it and I would support them being fired 100%.
And Therea, I have not "proven" anything except that people should do the jobs for which they have been hired to do.
What I have "proven" is that I can disagree without being disagreeable however you appear to hold yourself to a slightly different standard. Perhaps you should consider that.
Harrison,
You have proven that you have a lack of respect for everyone else that shares a different set of values than you. You are disagreeable in nature. You would have people serve you and go against their belief system instead of making adjustments that would not harm another person's conscience. You are forcing your lack of morality on others when you or any person could simply find another doctor or pharmacist.
Theresa,
You would be entirely correct in your statements IF one thing was true... nobody forces anybody to work a certain job. If my hours are too long, if I work for not enough money, if my employer asks me to do things with which I don't agree then I can QUIT. You avoid this key point and, as a result, your points are baseless.
Harrison,
A person who chooses to work at a job and then the rules are changed which violates their conscience is in effect forcing them out of their livelihood. It is both not easy and is nonsensical to expect a person who studies for a particular profession to switch it just so to please people who do not agree with him morally and are imposing their lack of morality on him/her.
If another person is willing to do the immoral deed than I see no problem with that person doing it, instead of forcing your conscience, or lack thereof on another person. Are you going to fund their new career when they are forced out of their job?
What are you talking about? Nursing is one of the few professions where there is an acute shortage of qualified applicants. Where is it stated as fact that when the nurse was hired she was told she would never have to do anything with which she objected? People quit their jobs all the time when they are unhappy or asked to do things with which they don't agree. Nobody is forced to take or keep a job. Who's to say she couldn't get a job in a nursing home where abortion won't be an issue making twice her current salary?
If you are hired to do a job why should you be allowed to pick and choose which parts you will and won't do? Don't like it find another job!
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