Coerced Participation in Abortion: The Next Phase of Federal Health Policy?

Randy Pate / July 22, 2009

The Alliance Defense Fund announced today that a lawsuit had been filed in federal court on behalf of a Catholic nurse who says her employer, Mount Sinai Hospital, forced her to assist in performing a late-term abortion in spite of her strongly held religious beliefs against abortion.

The suit alleges the nurse had repeatedly made her faith-based objections to assisting abortions clearly known to hospital administrators from the time she was hired, even signing a written statement stating her objection. It also states the hospital had a clear written policy preventing its employees from being required to participate in abortions. Nevertheless, the lawsuit alleges the hospital insisted that the nurse participate in the procedure just minutes before the scheduled “22-week age of gestation abortion,” and that staff shouted at her and threatened her with disciplinary action if she didn’t comply. (more…)