newjerseynewsroom.com

A dozen nurses said on Nov. 14 that they were being forced to assist with abortion procedures against their will and in spite of a federal lawsuit they had filed against the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark.

The U.S. Supreme Court and several federal laws give employees the right to opt out of performing an abortion, New Jersey Republican Rep. Chris Smith said at the press conference.

The nurses filed their lawsuit against the hospital on Oct. 31.

“My spiritual conviction tells me, I would not want to kill innocent babies, and not in my wildest dream, as a nurse, as a person, as a Christian, did I ever think that I would be trained to assist with this kind of procedure,” said nurse Fe Esperanza Racpan-Vinoya, as was reported on Christianpost.com.

The hospital had reversed its policy allowing medical staff to exercise moral conscience and choose not to perform an abortion, the nurses said. The new policy, the nurses added, make it mandatory for all nurses to assist in abortions and can be fired if they refuse.

The nurses said they told their supervisor of their objections but were ignored. A federal judge issued a restraining order preventing the hospital from requiring unwilling nurses to assist.

The hospital said in a statement that it was complying with the order.

“The university is in full compliance with all applicable state and federal laws, and is confident its position will be vindicated when the court gives this matter a full hearing,” the statement read, according to the Associated Press.

Rep. Smith said the hospital “not only imposed irreparable harm and suffering on its own nurses,” by forcing them to assist against their moral will, “but has willfully and recklessly put federal funding for the institution at risk.”

The nurses’ lawsuit will be heard in court on Dec. 5.

—JOE GREENE, NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM