A nurse in the United States has won a key conscientious objection case after the US Department of Veterans Affairs did not allow staff to opt out of providing abortion services.
Last year, the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) controversially introduced abortion services for veterans.
Nurse Stephanie Carter, who was working at the Olin E. Teague Veterans’ Center in Texas at the time, objected on religious grounds and wished to opt out of providing abortions. After requesting religious accommodation, Carter was told that the VA had no process that would allow for her appeal to be processed.
Carter consequently filed a lawsuit against the VA. “Stephanie Carter is living proudly by her faith and should not be forced to choose between her faith and her career”, said The First Liberty Institute, which represented her.
Carter subsequently won her case. 371,000 VA staff may now seek religious accommodation.
Last year, Malta rejected a Council of Europe diktat that demanded that the island, which has been Catholic for centuries, legalise abortion and outlaw conscientious objection.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “Religious people often find themselves on the frontline of conscientious objection, although objecting to abortion is by no means limited to people of faith.
“Pro-abortion ideology has gone out of its way to persecute Christians whose faith is rightly seen as one of the major obstacles to the total promulgation of abortion across the world.
“While pro-lifers campaign every day to end abortion, we cannot afford to give ground on the key battleground of conscientious objection, then, and the individual’s right not to participate in any way in the killing of an unborn child.
“This case might seem like a small victory, but its effect may be profound in the long run. Carter is to be commended for standing up to pro-abortion power on behalf of pro-lifers and unborn babies.”
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