{"id":236437,"date":"2020-12-17T11:37:02","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T17:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=236437"},"modified":"2020-12-17T00:44:33","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T06:44:33","slug":"doj-sues-vermont-hospital-forcing-nurse-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doj-sues-vermont-hospital-forcing-nurse-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ sues Vermont hospital for forcing nurse to participate in elective abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/uvmmc-nov-letter_508.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced<\/a> on Wednesday that it has referred the University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC) to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The referral was made over an investigation into the hospital&#8217;s violation of conscience protection laws after a nurse was forced to participate in an elective abortion against her will in May of 2018.<\/p>\n<p>The conscience protection laws UVMMC is said to be in violation of are known as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/ocr\/civilrights\/understanding\/ConscienceProtect\/42usc300a7.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Church Amendments<\/a>. OCR found that the hospital has refused to change its policies in order to prevent future coercion to participate in abortions as the nurse in question was forced to do.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ:\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-healthcare-professionals-conscience-catholic-hospitals\/\">Pro-life healthcare professionals face conscience protection issues\u2026.even at Catholic hospitals<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to OCR, the nurse at UVMMC was forced to take part in an elective abortion when she was sent to a procedure room for what she was told was a post-miscarriage D&amp;C procedure. Her objection to partaking in abortions was well known at the hospital, but when she arrived the abortionist allegedly told her, &#8220;Don&#8217;t hate me.&#8221; She was forced to participate in the abortion or risk losing her job. After taking part in the abortion, she said she has been &#8220;haunted ever since.&#8221; OCR said the abortion was not for an emergency and &#8220;other staff was available.&#8221; In August 2019, HHS sent a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/uvmmc-nov-letter_508.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Notice of Violation letter<\/a> to UVMMC over the incident and the hospital&#8217;s refusal to alter its policies.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SBAList\/status\/1339296833894567937?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-236440\" src=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/SBA-List-HHS.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"457\" height=\"513\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/SBA-List-HHS.jpg 457w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/SBA-List-HHS-267x300.jpg 267w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 457px) 100vw, 457px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>UVMMC was asked to align its policies to the Church Amendments and take other corrective actions as well, but the hospital refused to comply with federal law and the matter was referred to DOJ. DOJ has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont on behalf of HHS to seek a court order that would require UVMMC to comply with the Church Amendments.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;OCR&#8230; found that UVMMC has discriminatory policies that assign or require employees to assist abortion procedures even after they have recorded their religious or moral objections to assisting in the performance of such abortions,&#8221; HHS said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/about\/news\/2019\/08\/28\/ocr-issues-notice-violation-university-vermont-medical-center-after-it-unlawfully-forced-nurse.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">press release<\/a> at the time.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveactionnewsonline\/\">\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a> for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Wednesday that it has referred the University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC) to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The referral was made over an investigation into the hospital&#8217;s violation of conscience protection laws after a nurse was forced to participate in an elective abortion [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":193727,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[4,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>DOJ sues Vermont hospital for forcing nurse to participate in elective abortion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doj-sues-vermont-hospital-forcing-nurse-abortion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DOJ sues Vermont hospital for forcing nurse to participate in elective abortion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Wednesday that it has referred the University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC) to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The referral was made over an investigation into the hospital&#8217;s violation of conscience protection laws after a nurse was forced to participate in an elective abortion [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doj-sues-vermont-hospital-forcing-nurse-abortion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-17T17:37:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-12-17T06:44:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Vermont-state-flag.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nancy Flanders\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nancy Flanders\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doj-sues-vermont-hospital-forcing-nurse-abortion\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doj-sues-vermont-hospital-forcing-nurse-abortion\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nancy Flanders\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d61ca3dd1aacf12635bdf71d75c328ef\"},\"headline\":\"DOJ sues Vermont hospital for forcing nurse to participate in elective abortion\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-17T17:37:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-12-17T06:44:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doj-sues-vermont-hospital-forcing-nurse-abortion\/\"},\"wordCount\":381,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Issues\",\"Newsbreak\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doj-sues-vermont-hospital-forcing-nurse-abortion\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doj-sues-vermont-hospital-forcing-nurse-abortion\/\",\"name\":\"DOJ sues Vermont hospital for forcing nurse to participate in elective abortion\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-17T17:37:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-12-17T06:44:33+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doj-sues-vermont-hospital-forcing-nurse-abortion\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doj-sues-vermont-hospital-forcing-nurse-abortion\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doj-sues-vermont-hospital-forcing-nurse-abortion\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"DOJ sues Vermont hospital for forcing nurse to participate in elective abortion\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, &amp; Pro-Life Issues\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Live Action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"width\":701,\"height\":710,\"caption\":\"Live Action\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d61ca3dd1aacf12635bdf71d75c328ef\",\"name\":\"Nancy Flanders\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dee54060bdc22fdfbf36d946b3026cca?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dee54060bdc22fdfbf36d946b3026cca?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Nancy Flanders\"},\"description\":\"Nancy Flanders is Associate Editor for Live Action News. She has 25 years of experience writing and editing. For more than a decade, she has focused her work on pro-life issues through human interest stories and political issues regarding abortion and physician-assisted death as well as research articles and op-eds dismantling the lies of the pro-abortion, pro-death agenda. Her work has appeared in Catholic Digest, Pregnancy Help News, and a variety of other publications.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/nancy\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"DOJ sues Vermont hospital for forcing nurse to participate in elective abortion","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doj-sues-vermont-hospital-forcing-nurse-abortion\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"DOJ sues Vermont hospital for forcing nurse to participate in elective abortion","og_description":"The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Wednesday that it has referred the University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC) to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The referral was made over an investigation into the hospital&#8217;s violation of conscience protection laws after a nurse was forced to participate in an elective abortion [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doj-sues-vermont-hospital-forcing-nurse-abortion\/","og_site_name":"Live Action News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","article_published_time":"2020-12-17T17:37:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-12-17T06:44:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":650,"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Vermont-state-flag.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Nancy Flanders","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@liveaction","twitter_site":"@liveaction","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nancy Flanders","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doj-sues-vermont-hospital-forcing-nurse-abortion\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doj-sues-vermont-hospital-forcing-nurse-abortion\/"},"author":{"name":"Nancy Flanders","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d61ca3dd1aacf12635bdf71d75c328ef"},"headline":"DOJ sues Vermont hospital for forcing nurse to participate in elective abortion","datePublished":"2020-12-17T17:37:02+00:00","dateModified":"2020-12-17T06:44:33+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doj-sues-vermont-hospital-forcing-nurse-abortion\/"},"wordCount":381,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Issues","Newsbreak"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doj-sues-vermont-hospital-forcing-nurse-abortion\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doj-sues-vermont-hospital-forcing-nurse-abortion\/","name":"DOJ sues Vermont hospital for forcing nurse to participate in elective abortion","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-12-17T17:37:02+00:00","dateModified":"2020-12-17T06:44:33+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doj-sues-vermont-hospital-forcing-nurse-abortion\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doj-sues-vermont-hospital-forcing-nurse-abortion\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doj-sues-vermont-hospital-forcing-nurse-abortion\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"DOJ sues Vermont hospital for forcing nurse to participate in elective abortion"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","name":"Live Action News","description":"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, &amp; Pro-Life Issues","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization","name":"Live Action","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","width":701,"height":710,"caption":"Live Action"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d61ca3dd1aacf12635bdf71d75c328ef","name":"Nancy Flanders","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dee54060bdc22fdfbf36d946b3026cca?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dee54060bdc22fdfbf36d946b3026cca?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Nancy Flanders"},"description":"Nancy Flanders is Associate Editor for Live Action News. She has 25 years of experience writing and editing. For more than a decade, she has focused her work on pro-life issues through human interest stories and political issues regarding abortion and physician-assisted death as well as research articles and op-eds dismantling the lies of the pro-abortion, pro-death agenda. Her work has appeared in Catholic Digest, Pregnancy Help News, and a variety of other publications.","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/nancy\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236437"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236437"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236454,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236437\/revisions\/236454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}