Vermont Hospital Under Fire For Forcing Nurse To Do Abortion Despite Religious Beliefs

Abortion is a sensitive issue anywhere though there are regions where it is allowed. However, there is due diligence needed for hospitals carrying out, including the federal anti-discrimination statute known better as “Chuch Amendments.”

This is a sensitive issue that the University of Vermont Medical Center is facing. The Justice Department filed a civil lawsuit against them for allegedly misleading and forcing a nurse to perform an abortion despite a conflict with the procedure due to her religious beliefs. The suit was filed at the Vermont Federal Court on Wednesday.

"No institution or person should force any health care provider to perform an abortion if doing so would violate the provider’s religious beliefs or moral convictions. This kind of indecent coercion violates everything this country stands for," Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband for the Civil Rights Division said in a statement.

However, hospital president Dr. Stephen Leffler feels that the claims of the Office of Civil Rights are baseless and an attack on reproductive care before the lawsuti was filed. He said that they will do everything to protect their patients’ access to the services they need in a report from ABC News.

"As the primary tertiary care center for our region, we have an obligation to provide access to safe and legal reproductive health care to our patients who rely on us," he said.

In the lawsuit, it was detailed how a nurse, whose identity has been withheld, was scheduled to participate in an abortion at the hospital. The nurse made her objections to the procedure known to medical staff. She was then led to believe the procedure did not involve abortion.

"Once the deceived nurse entered the procedure room she learned the true nature of the procedure," the Department of Justice stated. "After she reiterated her objection, UVMMC refused to find a non-objecting nurse to take over, effectively forcing the nurse to continue assisting in the abortion (or abandon the patient) despite her well-known religious objection."