skip to Main Content

New Jersey Nurses Win Huge Conscience Rights Battle

  • Blog

Twelve New Jersey nurses have won a smashing victory against their employer, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, which established a policy in September telling nurses working in the Same Day Surgery Unit they must assist in abortions. The nurses were “repeatedly threatened that they must assist abortions or be terminated,” according to Matt Bowman of the Alliance Defense Fund who served as the attorney for the nurses.

Bowman was engaged when the nurses rebelled and fought for their jobs and their conscience rights. The nurses took the hospital to court where a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order in November ordering the hospital to stop all training, procedures and performances related to abortion. This week, the nurses reached an agreement with the hospital that allows them to keep their jobs and not have to assist with abortions.

Bowman says the settlement is a huge victory. “It is a victory because the hospital finally agreed to obey the law and not force our clients to do any work on abortion cases in violation of their beliefs. The hospital agreed not to penalize our clients in any way because they choose to not help abortions, according to their legal rights. The hospital is required to fully staff all abortion cases so that our clients would never be needed for those cases, and the hospital cannot use pro-abortion staff to replace our clients or reduce their hours.”

Shortly after the 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion decision, Wisconsin passed a law protecting the conscience rights of medical professionals and facilities who did not want to participate in the performance of abortions. Many other states followed suits as did the federal government. The proponents of abortion, in their attempts to make abortion “mainstream” have wanted to force participation. The net effect would be that pro-life people would just not enter the medical field.

Kudos to the twelve nurses who had the courage to stand up to their employer, and to Matt Bowman who expertly defended them.

Barbara Lyons

Back To Top