Nurses for Life
Proposed Amendment to the Criminal Code(1989)
Introduction
Nurses for Life is a national and non-denominational organization of
nurses who oppose abortion. Its members recognize that under the law of
Canada in its present and proposed form abortions are being and will
continue to be performed in the hospitals in which they work.
This reality affects nurses and other health care workers in two ways.
First, they may be compelled, at the risk of losing their jobs, to
assist in an abortion procedure despite their personal beliefs. Second,
even where their personal beliefs are accommodated by their employers,
they may suffer discrimination in the pursuit of their vocation.
Nurses for Life believes that freedom of choice of nurses and other
health care workers is entitled to respect and protection. Legislation
for conscientious objectors is urgently required, and is a moral
imperative.
Such legislation should involve two elements. The first is the
protection of conscience; no person should be compelled directly or by
threat of penalty to be an unwilling participant in an abortion
procedure. The second is the right to protection against discrimination;
no person should be impeded in his or her career path by an exercise of
personal conscience. [Nurses for Life]
Proposed Amendment
to the Criminal Code
s.289 Every person who directly or indirectly requires a
physician, nurse, staff member or employee of a hospital or other health
care facility to perform or participate directly or indirectly in an
abortion procedure is guilty of an indictable offence and is liable to
imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.
s.289.1 Every person who directly or indirectly discriminates in any
manner against a physician, nurse, staff member or employee of a hospital or
other health care facility or against an applicant for such position who
expresses an unwillingness or a refusal to perform or participate in an
abortion procedure is guilty of an indictable offence and is liable to
imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.