Nurses who have a conscientious objection to abortion are facing more and more restrictions on 
their ability to act according to their consciences, the president of an international Catholic nursing association said this week.
Marylee Meehan, president of the International Catholic Committee of Nurses and Medical-Social Assistants (CICIAMS), told Catholic News Agency (CNA) at a conference in Rome that conscience rights are nurses’ biggest problem in the US.
Meehan told CNA that nurses fear being fired if they speak out against abortion and other highly controversial practices.
She added that nurses who apply for jobs in maternity care who admit to being pro-life will often find themselves blocked from serious consideration.
“It’s a problem, when you want to apply for a job and you will not provide abortions, they will not accept you.”
“It takes extreme courage to be a Catholic living the Catholic life in their professional environment,” said Meehan.
Concerns over conscience rights for health care workers are coming to the fore in the U.S., where actions taken by the Obama administration have aroused opposition from rights groups.
In 2009, Obama rescinded a conscience protection clause that was put in place by Health and Human Services earlier in the year, under President Bush. The newly passed national health care law has also been criticized for opening the door to attacks on conscience right.
In December, Dominique Monlezun, National Coordinator of Medical Students for Life, wrote that concerned citizens must “tell President Obama to call off the dogs.”
“He preaches tolerance but does not tolerate medical professionals who decline procedures on religious or moral grounds.”
Monlezun cited the case of pro-life nurse Cathy Cenzon-DeCarlo who sued New York’s Mt. Sinai Hospital last year after she was forced to participate in a late-term abortion procedure under threat of disciplinary action.
She was threatened with termination and loss of her license, despite the fact that conscience rights for nurses are protected under New York state law.
A 2009 “Global Safe Abortion” conference held in London by international abortion groups Marie Stopes International and IPAS attacked conscience protections in its report detailing the abortion movement’s global strategy.
At a European level, an attempt was made by a UK Member of Parliament, Catherine McCafferty at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to introduce a resolution severely restricting the right of medical workers to refuse to perform abortions and euthanasia.
However, thanks to the work of Irish Senator Ronan Mullen and Italian representative Luca Volonte, a series of amendments which radically altered the document were passed.
The original report said that conscientious objection should be limited to doctors and nurses but not to medical institutions like hospitals, that doctors and nurses with an objection to a procedure such as abortion must refer the patient to someone who does not have such an objection, and that in ‘emergencies’ they must carry out the procedures themselves.
The report, previously entitled “Women’s access to lawful medical care: the problem of unregulated use of conscientious objection”, had also suggested that States should compel health-care providers to perform euthanasia on patients under certain circumstances and that a ‘registry of conscientious objectors’ be created.
Twenty nine amendments were tabled to the report, however, transforming the report into a resolution affirming the right to conscientiously object to abortion.