New Jersey Nurses Charge Religious Discrimination Over Hospital Abortion Policy

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Washington Post

New Jersey nurses charge religious discrimination over hospital abortion policy


By Rob Stein, Published: November 27

A dozen nurses in New Jersey have rekindled the contentious debate over when health-care workers can refuse to play a role in caring for women getting abortions.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court Oct. 31, 12 nurses charge that the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey violated state and federal laws by abruptly announcing in September that nurses would have to help with abortion patients before and after the procedure, reversing a long-standing policy exempting employees who refuse based on religious or moral objections.

“I’m a nurse so I can help people, not help kill, and it just doesn’t seem right to me,” said Beryl Otieno-Negoje, one of the nurses. “No health professional should be forced to choose between assisting abortion or being penalized at work.”

The University Hospital issued a statement that “no nurse is compelled to have direct involvement in, and/or attendance in the room at the time of, a procedure to which she or he objects based on his/her cultural values, ethics and/or religious beliefs.”

“The university is in full compliance with all applicable state and federal laws and is confident its position will be vindicated when the court gives this matter a full hearing,” according to the statement.

For decades, most states, including New Jersey, have had laws protecting nurses and other health-care workers who have moral objections to participating in abortions. In addition, federal laws, such as the Church Amendment, require health-care facilities that receive taxpayer money to permit workers to refuse on ethical grounds.

On Nov. 3, U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares granted a request for a temporary restraining order barring the hospital from requiring the nurses to undergo training to care for abortion patients, pending a Dec. 5 hearing on the case, which involves 12 of the 16 nurses who work in the hospital’s same-day surgery unit.

Matt Bowman, an attorney representing the nurses, said he had received an e-mail from a lawyer for the hospital arguing that no laws had been broken, because the nurses are required to care for abortion patients only before and after the procedure.

“The pre- and post-operative care provided to these patients is the same nature as that provided to patients who have undergone other surgical procedures,” Edward B. Deutsch of McElry, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter of Morristown, N.J., wrote in the e-mail.

Bowman argued that requiring the nurses to get involved before and after an abortion violated their right to refuse based on their conscientious objections.

“Federal and state law explicitly prohibits requiring nurses to assist in abortion against their moral and religious convictions,” Bowman said. “All these nurses are asking is that they not have to assist in any part of an abortion case.”

One of the nurses, Fe Esperanza R. Vinoya, said a manager told her: “‘You just have to catch the baby’s head. Don’t worry, it’s already dead.’ ”

“Nursing is a healing profession, and the law protects our right not to provide any services related to abortion,” Vinoya said at a news conference this month.
 
I can see them requiring it to prep the patient and then again care for the patient after surgery during recovery because that's their job. Requiring them to assist during the procedure is a bit much. I can't really see a manager telling them they have to catch the baby's head and to assist no matter what, they'd have to know they're opening themselves and the hospital up to a lawsuit.
 
“I’m a nurse so I can help people, not help kill, and it just doesn’t seem right to me,” said Beryl Otieno-Negoje, one of the nurses. “No health professional should be forced to choose between assisting abortion or being penalized at work.”


Amen
 
“I’m a nurse so I can help people, not help kill, and it just doesn’t seem right to me,” said Beryl Otieno-Negoje, one of the nurses. “No health professional should be forced to choose between assisting abortion or being penalized at work.”

I don't think I'd want that judgmental bitch anywhere near me if I was a patient. But I also don't think she should ever have been hired if she can't do ALL parts of the job she was hired to do. If her job requires her to care for abortion patients and she isn't willing to do that, then she should do the morally honourable thing and find a different job.
 
So if I work at McDonald's can I refuse to serve fat people, too?

:rolleyes:


I'm sure if people really examine their jobs, they will find something they dislike, morally or otherwise (~I do).
Why not work to change the circumstances that brought about the objectionable situation rather than just refusing to do your job?
 
If you're a health professional you will have to care for all kinds of people that you might find morally questionable or objectionable. What about someone who kills, shoots a police officer, rapes..any myriad of things. If you can't or don't want to do that you shouldn't be in that field.

You choose that job but you can't pick and choose who you are supposed to help and treat.
 
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