Tuesday, 11 August 2009

• Catholic Nurse Ordered to Help With Abortion, Against Her Will

     A lawsuit has been filed against Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City for forcing a Catholic nurse who has voiced her conscientious objection to abortion to assist in the dismemberment of a child, a recent article reports.
  
  This case is being brought before the Alliance Defense Fund, which is seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent the hospital from retaliating against the nurse, Catherina Lorena Cenzon-DeCarlo.
  
  The injunction request lays out the details of the hospital's actions: "Because it was included in the requirements of her nursing duties as an assistant on the case, Mount Sinai forced Mrs. DeCarlo to watch the doctor remove the bloody arms and legs of the child from its mother's body by with forceps, and then after the surgery, to view the bloody body parts in the specimen cup, put saline in the cup, and take it to the specimen area."
  
  In addition, the complaint pointed out that the abortion was not so urgent that it immediately required DeCarlo's assistance, and there was more than enough time to summon another nurse.
  
  According the the Alliance Defense Fund, the hospital has been aware of DeCarlo's religious objections to participating in the death of a living unborn baby since 2004. Despite this, the hospital allegedly forced her to participate, threatening her with disciplinary measures should she decline.  After DeCarlo refused to sign a statement confirming that she assist in future abortions, the hospital dramatically cut her on-call assignments. 
  
  ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman strongly argued against the actions of the hospital, labeling them as illegal and unethical.
  

  "Pro-life nurses shouldn’t be forced to assist in abortions against their beliefs," Bowman said. "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."
  

  The hospital allegedly set up the abortion because the mother had been diagnosed with preeclampsia, but DeCarlo knew such a condition can be treated without the necessity of an abortion.
  

  When DeCarlo was informed that the unborn child was still alive, she immediately refused to assist.  However, the nursing supervisor, Fran Carpo, did not take no for an answer.
  

  The complaint elaborates on Carpo's demands, and even threats, forcing DiCarlo to assist in the abortion: "Ms. Carpo said that if Mrs. DeCarlo did not participate in the case, Mrs. DeCarlo would be brought up on charges of 'insubordination and patient abandonment.  A charge of patient abandonment would severely jeopardize Mrs. DeCarlo's employment and her nursing license and consequently her career and her and her family's livelihood."
  

  The request for the injunction explains that federal law doesn't condone the actions of the hospital. 
  

  "Mount Sinai is bound to respect Mrs. DeCarlo's conscience rights by virtue of several laws, but most notably 42 U.S.C. § 300a-7(c). Mount Sinai has voluntarily subjected itself to this statute by receiving hundreds of millions of federal Health and Human Services dollars in recent years," the request stated. "This statute … states in no uncertain terms that Mrs. DeCarlo is protected from discrimination by Mount Sinai in the conditions or privileges of her employment on the basis of her religious objection to assisting in abortion."
  
  DeCarlo has faced personal trauma due to her assistance in the abortion against her will.
  
  "She has felt intense emotional, psychological and spiritual suffering from having to participate in something she considers profoundly immoral and unjust. She has missed several days of work, has had trouble sleeping, and has had nightmares about the killing of this child. She has even had to deal with feelings of estrangement from God and family members," the law firm said.
  
  Do you think the hospital should have forced DeCarlo to assist in the abortion, despite her conscientious objection to abortion? If you were in DeCarlo's shoes, would you have continually refused to offer assistance, despite the orders of your supervisors?
  
  

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