Nurse forced to assist in late term abortion
Cenzon-DeCarlo v. The Mount Sinai Hospital
New York, NY, USA (May, 2009)
Alliance Defending
Freedom (Fomerly Alliance Defense Fund) Fact Sheet
ABOUT Cenzon-DeCarlo v. The Mount Sinai Hospital
Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed suit on
behalf of Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo, a nurse who was forced to assist in the abortion of a 22-week-old preborn child
despite her longstanding religious objections.
FACTS
On Sunday, May 24,
2009, Cenzon-DeCarlo was scheduled to assist in a late second trimester
abortion for a woman 22 weeks into her pregnancy. The hospital has known of
her religious objections to abortion since 2004.
When Cenzon-DeCarlo
reminded officials of her religious objections, she was told that if she did
not participate in this case, she would be charged with "insubordination and
patient abandonment." If Cenzon-DeCarlo opted not to assist in the abortion, she faced disciplinary action,
including possible loss of her job and/or nursing license.
The scheduled abortion
was labeled as a "Category II," the classification for operations needing to
take place within six hours, not a "Category I," which is the
classification for "patients requiring immediate surgical intervention for life or limb threatening conditions." This
demonstrates that Cenzon-DeCarlo's immediate surgical assistance was not required.
In fact, the patient's
condition didn't even rise to a Category II. The patient could have been
maintained in stable condition until the hospital assigned a nurse to the case
who would have been willing to assist the abortion.
Cenzon-DeCarlo observed no indications that the
abortion was a medical emergency requiring her assistance. For example, when the patient was brought into the room for
surgery, her blood pressure was not at a crisis value, and other standard measures for patients in crisis had not been
taken on the patient.
As part of her nursing
duties, Cenzon-DeCarlo was forced to watch the doctor remove the bloody arms
and legs of the child from the mother's body. She was also forced to
treat and deliver the bloody body parts of the 22-weekold preborn child to the specimen room.
Cenzon-DeCarlo has suffered emotional and
psychological trauma from being forced to assist in the abortion.
RESOURCES
Videos of babies in womb, 22-25 weeks:
Photos of pre-born babies in various stages:
CONTACT
Katie Blechacz, Media Relations Manager
Phone: (480) 444-0020, x. 17102 /
E-mail:
adfmedia@telladf.org
/
ADF Media
ABOUT ADF
ADF is a legal alliance of Christian
attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the
right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF
employs a unique combination of
strategy,
training, funding, and litigation
to protect and preserve
religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and
the family.