US: Nurse forced to participate in late-term abortion sues hospital over rights violation
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A New York nurse claims she was forced to choose between her religious convictions and her job when Mount Sinai Hospital ordered her to participate in a late-term abortion against her will.
Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo, 35, a Christian nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital (US) and niece of a Filipino bishop, described in an interview with New York Post the ordeal she endured when she was told by hospital administrators to choose between her religious convictions and her job. The hospital even exaggerated the patient’s condition and told the weeping Mrs Cenzon-DeCarlo the patient was 22 weeks into her pregnancy and had preeclampsia, a condition marked by high blood pressure that can lead to seizures or death if left untreated.
The hospital supervisor ‘claimed that the mother could die if [Mrs Cenzon-DeCarlo] did not assist in the abortion,' the lawsuit says. Subsequently, she found out that the hospital’s own records described the procedure as ‘Category II’, which is not considered immediately life threatening. It clearly indicates that the hospital had no reason to insist upon the nurse’s assistance in the abortion in order to protect the patient.
Mrs Cenzon-DeCarlo said that ‘it felt like a horror film unfolding’. In her lawsuit she claims that she has had gruesome nightmares and has not been able to sleep since the incident on 24 May 2009.
‘I couldn't believe that this could happen,’ she told in the interview. She described how she was threatened with charges of insubordination and patient abandonment, which could result in the loss of her job and nursing license, if she did not participate in the abortion. ‘I felt violated and betrayed,’ she added.
(See the New York Post report)
She claims that she informed her supervisors six hours before the procedure that she had previously told the hospital she would not participate in an abortion due to her religious beliefs. She says that at her job interview she gave the hospital a written statement that she would not participate in an abortion.
Later, in the report to her union she wrote:
‘I immigrated to this country in the belief that here religious freedom is sacred. Doctors and nurses shouldn't be forced to abandon their beliefs and participate in abortion in order to keep their jobs.’
The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a US legal alliance of Christian attorneys, filed the lawsuit against Mount Sinai Hospital on behalf of Mrs Cenzon-DeCarlo, who is still working there. They are also requesting a preliminary injunction that would order the hospital to honour her religious objection against assisting in abortion and refrain from retaliation against her while the case moves forward.
In addition, the lawsuit asserts that the hospital violated federal law by threatening her job and nursing license unless she would assist in the procedure. Among other things, the nurse is asking that the hospital refrains from mandating employees to assist in abortion over their conscientious objection, pursuant to the Church Amendment (42 U.S.C. § 300a7(c)), a US law, which protects the ‘right of conscience’ of pro-life health care workers employed by recipients of federal funding from the Department of Health and Human Services.
The lawsuit says:
‘Compelling Mrs DeCarlo to assist in this abortion against her religious beliefs exposed Mrs DeCarlo to brutal psychological harm. By assisting she was forced to witness the killing of a 22-week-old preborn child by dismemberment.’
Matt Bowman, the ADF Legal Counsel, said:
‘Pro-life nurses shouldn't be forced to assist in abortions against their beliefs. Requiring a devout, Catholic nurse to participate in a late-term abortion in order to remain employed is illegal, unethical, and violates her rights of conscience.
‘Federal law requires that employers who receive funding from tax dollars must not compel employees to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs, but this nurse's objections fell on deaf ears.’
Mrs Cenzon-DeCarlo believes lots of nurses and doctors throughout the US are being pressured to assist abortion, and I want them to know they are not alone, and they should speak up for their rights of conscience.’
Mrs Cenzon-DeCarlo moved to New York from the Philippines in 2001. She worked at Mount Sinai Hospital as an operating since 2004.
The issue of abortion in the US is getting more controversial under the leadership of President Obama. Since his election earlier this year, he has repealed a ban on US taxpayer funding of foreign abortions and overturned the nation's ban on experimenting on human embryos for stem cell research.
His recent political appointments also include installing in his administration's highest levels several strongly pro-abortion politicians, including former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who is now serving as Health Secretary.
President Obama has a 100 per cent approval rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America, the US's leading pro-abortion organization. That rating is based on a record of consistently voting against the unborn.
In addition, in 2002, President Obama voted against an Induced Infant Liability Act in the Illinois legislature. This Act would have given legal protection and medical assistance to babies born from botched abortions.
In October 2007, he also voted in the Senate against banning partial-birth abortion.
In his inaugural address, President Obama neglected to mention the US founders' emphasis on life and liberty as the first of the inalienable rights in the Declaration of Independence and five minutes after he became president the White House website changed from pro-life to pro-abortion.
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