Dear AAPLOG Colleague, You are familiar with the case of the 12 surgical nurses at the Univ. of Med and Dent of New Jersey who were basically told, “assist with abortions or risk being fired.” (see our letters of Nov 4, 16,21 on our website) Their Conscience case was handled by the Alliance Defense Fund. Yesterday they won their case. Celebrate. But celebrate with restraint, as the “deniers of conscience rights” will be back. A different time, a different venue, but they will be back. The right to follow our conscience convictions will be a central struggle in medical “ethics” and pragmatic practice for the foreseeable future. We have won a battle, but the War will go on. The following is a statement from the US Congresspersons’ Pro-life Caucus Co-Chair Chris Smith (R-NJ): December 22, 2011 http://chrissmith.house.gov “UMDNJ’s coercive abortion participation policy announced in September was a blatant violation of the rights of its health care professionals. The right to conscience is a federally protected fundamental right that cannot be abridged, undermined or violated in any way. “Due to the brave voices of these 12 nurses and the diligent work of their attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund, the hospital has finally agreed to respect their rights. The nurses may continue to provide compassionate life-affirming care without being complicit in the destruction of innocent human life. “UMDNJ argues that sometimes so-called safe, elective abortions put women in life-threatening situations. When an abortion threatens to take the life of both the baby and the mom, the pro-life nurses have always been willing to step in, if needed, to preserve the life of the mother until the emergency code team arrives. “Now it is the hospital’s responsibility to make sure respect for conscience is implemented through a hospital-wide policy without nuance, loopholes, ambiguity or small print. A durable, transparent and effective means of monitoring compliance with federally protected conscience rights must be put in place to ensure that no-one at UMDNJ, including the nurses who asserted their federally guaranteed rights not to participate in any way in the killing of an unborn child are harmed, subjected to any discrimination or retaliated against now or at any time in the future.” AAPLOG note: We celebrate with ADF and the nurses, and we will be ready for the next conscience battle. Be ready with us.
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