Nurse’s Refusal to Assist in Abortion Leads to Hospital Policy Protecting Conscience Rights

From LifeSiteNews.com:

CHICAGO, Illinois, December 19, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A nurse’s refusal to participate in the abortion of a baby with Down Syndrome led a Chicago hospital to develop a policy protecting the right of health-care workers to refuse on moral grounds, Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink reported yesterday.

Mary Bauer was 48 when she decided to enter nursing, eventually taking a position in the obstetrics unit at a Chicago hospital. On her first day at work, she was told she would be participating in the abortion of a baby diagnosed with Down Syndrome, at 22-weeks gestation. Bauer refused.

"I just told them, ‘I can’t take that patient. I’m very pro-life. I cannot participate in any way, shape or form. I just can’t do it, so I need an alternate assignment," Bauer told CitizenLink.

Fearful that she would lose her position, Bauer investigated Illinois law and discovered two statues protecting health-care workers who object to participating in medical procedures on moral grounds.

She told her co-workers at the hospital they had the legal right to refuse to assist in abortions.

"They never knew they had a choice," Bauer said, "and they said, ‘We’ve never had a choice. We always thought this was part of our job and we had to do it.'

Bauer said before she began her legal search, she asked friends for prayers. Those prayers were partially answered when the hospital adopted an official policy that protected staff from dismissal if they refused to participate in procedures on moral grounds.

The unborn child with Down Syndrome eventually died through abortion, however, despite Mary Bauer’s efforts on the baby’s behalf.

See coverage from CitizenLink:
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000003450.cfm