Two Catholic midwives in the UK are suing a health board for refusing to recognise their conscientious objection 
to supervising staff involved in abortions.
Mary Doogan, 57, and Concepta Wood, 51, told NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde that delegating, supervising or supporting staff who were participating in abortions would go against their conscience.
However officials rejected their position and they hope to have that ruling set aside in a judicial review.
According to The Daily Telegraph, the women claim the refusal to recognise their entitlement to conscientious objection violates their rights under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects “the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion”.
They say they “hold a religious belief that all human life is sacred from the moment of conception and that termination of pregnancy is a grave offence against human life”. Their involvement in the process would be wrongful and “an offence against God”.
Miss Doogan and Mrs Wood, both midwifery sisters at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow, are seeking a ruling at the Court of Session in Edinburgh on their entitlement to conscientious objection under the 1967 Abortion Act. David Johnston QC, for the women, said the matter became an issue for the midwives, who were long-standing employees, in 2007.
They had both previously given notice of conscientious objection to any involvement in abortions and said they were not expected to participate in them.
But in 2007 the health board introduced changes that meant women having abortions were in the labour ward where the women worked and they were expected to look after them and therefore from their point of view facilitate abortion.
They were not expected to administer abortion-inducing drugs but management said requiring conscientious objectors to provide care for patients through a termination was lawful.
According to the court papers, Mrs Wood, of Clarkston, Glasgow, had to provide direct care to a patient having an abortion which caused her “considerable distress and anxiety” and resulted in her obtaining a transfer.
Miss Doogan, of Garrowhill, Glasgow, has been absent from work through ill health since 2010 as a result of the dispute.
The hearing continues.
Last year, two Catholic nurses who had been told they could not refuse to work at an abortion clinic had the ruling dropped after claiming that the sanctity of unborn life was a philosophical belief protected under the Equality Act 2010.