Nurse forced to participate in late term abortion

I am not making any moral judgements or statements here, I just saw the article and found it thought provoking.
I have wondered about the subject of abortion as it applies to nurses and specificly medical emergency abortions.
I myself am prolife, with no religious affiliation backing that stance, just my own morals and ethics. I am currently still a student and being a male I really doubt I would ever be in this situation (working LD), but as I stated above, it is thought provoking.



Read article in its entirety:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07262009...ort_181426.htm

This article is very inaccurate.

You cannot be accused of abandoning a patient when you have not taken the assignment to start with.

She was NOT asked (which is clear in the article) to choose between her job and her religious beliefs. She was told (allegedly) that she would not be given overtime shifts.

No employer is required to give overtime shifts. Unions may require that overtime be distributed fairly, but the US Department of Labor does not require that an employee be given overtime by their employer.

In fact, if the situation was TRULY a non-emergent reason, then I would wager that the nurse FAILED THE PATIENT by not advocating above the physician's head for the fetus, that could have survived if the mother was given appropriate treatment for preeclampsia....or even assessing if the mother knew that treatment was available.

To me...this nurse hasn't picked her battles appropriately.

You know, fire me. I know jobs are few and far between, but its not worth it.

I'll defer to your experience Babylady, the article was produced by a media outlet that I'm not overly sure is known for posting complete articles that gives the complete picture of a story. After reading many stories this past month on nurses and nursing in general, and seen many depictions of nurses in the media that leave me scratching my head I tend to just take in the basic story and see how it would apply to me with the information given. I do love hearing from experienced nurses that can shed light on a story tho. It does make me wonder how much fact checking goes into some of these stories.

Hey, I'm pro choice, and she sounds like she has a case. The hospital is bullying her, as it did the day the abortion was performed.

Threads merged.

The nurse shouldn't have done it if she were against it. lf her beliefs are that strong, as mine are, than it shouldn't matter what the threat was. Nothing in this world is worth me sacrificing my morals. When your day comes and all is said and done, the decisions you made when faced with adversity will be what you are judged by.

If it was just ordinary pre-eclampsia, this might have been an excuse to get rid of an unwanted baby. If it was HELLP Syndrome, this was a necessary procedure to save the mother's life.

Regardless, I hope employers stand in line to hire her, if this is the whole story.

JMHO.

If I had strong beliefs in something like abortion, I don't think I would take a job where abortions are often performed. Why not work in a Catholic hospital if you feel that strongly about it? There are religious hospitals out there that align themselves with religion, right? I know I did clinicals at a seventh day adventist hospital and there was no meat in the cafeteria. It stunk.