A Tale of Nine Nurses: Punishing Religious Beliefs

Chuck Colson
BreakPoint
May 4, 2010

A woman—just 14 weeks pregnant—arrived at Nassau University Medical Center in New York, her water broken. Doctors told her that her tiny baby could not survive and recommended an abortion to avoid infection. The mother agreed. But eight nurses on duty that day refused to take part in the abortion. The baby, they said, still had a heartbeat, and the mother's life was not in danger.

The medical center has a policy of not requiring nurses to participate in abortions if they have moral objections. State and federal law backs up this policy. Nevertheless, the eight nurses say they have often been pressured to assist in abortions. And this time, their refusal led to disciplinary action. The nurses were all suspended.

Happily, their labor union came to their aid. The hospital's actions against the nurses, the union said, "goes against protocol…and the law." The hospital backed down and apologized to the nurses. Good. You can read the story of this here.

But a similar case did not have such a happy ending. the rest