Nurse Forced to Take Part in Late-Term Abortion Shows Need for Conscience Protection

Nurse Forced to Take Part in Late-Term Abortion Shows Need for Conscience Protection

FRC has been working hard to keep abortion from being covered by any national health plan. That’s a form of conscience protection for taxpayers, who otherwise could be forced to subsidize a morally offensive elective procedure. But yesterday, we had more dramatic evidence of how important it is also to ensure conscience protection for health care providers themselves.

Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorneys announced the filing of a lawsuit against Mount Sinai Hospital in New York on behalf of a nurse who was forced to participate in a late-term abortion against her will. On May 24, Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo, who is Catholic, was told she must assist with an abortion performed on a woman who was 22 weeks pregnant. When she reminded the hospital of her religious objections (which they have known about since 2004), she was threatened with disciplinary action, including the possible loss of her job and her nursing license.

Under this threat, Cenzon-DeCarlo was required to watch the dismemberment of the unborn child in the womb, and then to deliver the bloody body parts to a specimen room. Under federal law, hospitals that receive federal funds (like the $200 million that Mount Sinai receives annually) cannot force employees to participate in abortion procedures. That protection needs to be extended to all health care providers under any national health plan.

Additional Resources ADF: NY nurse threatened, forced to assist in late-term abortion