New York Catholic nurse, Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo, is taking legal
action against her employer Mt Sinai Hospital for forcing her to assist
with a late-term abortion.
Hospital officials demanded that Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo help with the termination of a 22-week pregnancy despite having been aware of her religious objection to abortion since 2004, The Christian Institute reports.
When she tried to remind staff at Mount Sinai Hospital of her beliefs she was threatened with the sack, she says.
Mrs Cenzon-DeCarlo had to witness the whole procedure and take the aborted foetus to the specimen room. She says the experience has caused her emotional and psychological trauma.
The nurse's lawyers say it is illegal in the United States for publicly-funded employers to force staff to act against their religious beliefs.
They say that the procedure was not an immediate emergency and there was "plenty of time" to find a different nurse to assist.
The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), an American organisation working to defend religious freedoms, has filed a lawsuit against the hospital on Mrs Cenzon-DeCarlo's behalf.
Hospital administrators told the nurse that the scheduled abortion was
an "emergency," though evidence shows otherwise, and insisted moments
before the procedure that she assist doctors despite her repeated
objections to the procedure, which dismembered a preborn child in the 22nd week of gestation, an article on the ADF website says.
By federal law, hospitals that receive federal funds cannot force
employees to participate in abortion procedures under any circumstances.
ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman said: "Chasing away workers from the health care field is disastrous health care policy".
"An individual's conscience is likely what brought them to the healthcare field. Denying or coercing their conscience will likely drive them right out."
FULL STORY @
New York nurse forced to help in late term abortion (The Christian Institute)
NY nurse threatened, forced to assist in late-term abortion (Alliance Defense Fund)
LINKS
Alliance Defense Fund