The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit last month against the University of Vermont Medical Center for reportedly forcing medical professionals to perform an abortion against their will.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan is the chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee for Religious Liberty, and Archbishop Joseph Naumann is chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities. They issued a strong statement commending the Trump Administration for defending conscience rights.
In 2018, a nurse at this medical center in Burlington, Vermont, whose objections to abortion were well known, had a fast one pulled on her—she was not told that she had to participate in an abortion until she entered the room.
What this nurse had to endure should never have happened. In 1973, just weeks after the high court legalized abortion, Congress enacted the Church Amendment. It prohibited courts and government agencies from forcing healthcare workers from performing an abortion if they morally objected. The vote was 92-1.
Even Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun (he wrote the majority opinion in two 1973 rulings legalizing abortion) said that “a physician or any other employee has the right to refrain…for moral or religious reasons from participating in the abortion procedure.”
It is a sign of just how sick our society has become that we are still fighting to protect the most elementary conscience rights.
