{"id":250610,"date":"2021-08-06T06:44:27","date_gmt":"2021-08-06T11:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=250610"},"modified":"2021-08-05T12:55:50","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T17:55:50","slug":"doj-dismissal-threat-conscience-protections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doj-dismissal-threat-conscience-protections\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden administration’s dismissal of UVM case is an attack on pro-life conscience protections"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(National Review<\/a>) \u201cDon\u2019t hate me.\u201d According to a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice last year, that is what an abortionist at the University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC) said to a nurse before she forced her to assist in the termination of a child\u2019s life on pain of losing her job and potentially her license if she refused. The nurse in the case had informed her bosses well beforehand that she could not participate in abortion because of her religious and moral convictions. Her right to such a demurrer is protected by federal law, known as the Church Amendments, which Congress passed unanimously in direct response to\u00a0Roe v. Wade<\/em>. The facts were stunning in their clarity, the victim was extremely credible and sympathetic, and the violator remained entirely callous and unrepentant. The UVMMC matter was the most open and shut conscience case in over a decade. I say\u00a0was<\/em>, because on Friday, the DOJ quietly, and voluntarily, dismissed the case. No admission of guilt, no injunction, no corrective action, no settlement, no nothing. Worse yet, because the victim has few to no options to sue on her own (due to nuances around private rights of action), the Biden administration is effectively giving UVMMC a full pardon and will continue to give it federal funds, despite it having been found by HHS to have violated the law.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t hate me indeed.<\/p>\n

After\u00a0Roe v. Wade\u00a0<\/em>the medical profession split in a way that Harry Blackmun, the author of\u00a0Roe<\/em>, did not expect. He imagined that women would obtain abortions \u201cwith the guidance of her physician\u201d in respected hospitals and medical practices all over America, excepting those run by religious institutions. Instead, the medical profession, rightly fearing for its reputation, offloaded abortion work to the legions of \u201cabortion clinics\u201d that began to spring up like McDonald\u2019s, but without the smile, all across the country. To the average American today, there are doctors and there are abortionists, and overwhelmingly, medical professionals do not want to be identified with the latter. Every year, thousands of medical professionals quietly decline to train in, assist, perform, or refer for abortions for a simple reason \u2014 they entered the practice of medicine to save lives, not end them. The more people recognize that abortion is not health care, the harder it is for abortion conglomerates to recruit and retain abortion workers. After all, who wants to put on their resume that they abort \u201cproducts of conception\u201d all day long for a living? This explains in part why Big Abortion is desperate to eliminate conscience protections for medical professionals that have been in place for decades because it helps their bottom line to have more people complicit in their sordid business. And now with President Biden and HHS secretary Xavier Becerra in power, the abortion industry is getting its wish.<\/p>\n

READ:<\/strong>\u00a0Biden DOJ drops case against Vermont hospital that coerced nurses to participate in abortion<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Although the nurse victim of UVMMC\u2019s malfeasance was deeply traumatized, she mustered the courage to file a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at HHS, which is responsible for enforcing our nation\u2019s many conscience-protection laws. I was director of OCR at the time and ordered an investigation by the office\u2019s Conscience and Religious Freedom Division which was founded precisely to handle cases such as these. The Division\u2019s career professionals, with assistance from career attorneys at the Office of General Counsel, issued\u00a0findings of violation<\/a>\u00a0against the hospital which led directly to\u00a0a lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0by the DOJ to enforce compliance with the law.<\/p>\n

For those unaware, Becerra may be the\u00a0most notorious<\/a>\u00a0violator of conscience laws in recent years. He even lost a Supreme Court case with his name on it,\u00a0NIFLA v. Becerra<\/em><\/a>, after he tried to coerce pro-life pregnancy-resource centers into violating their consciences by forcing them to refer mothers in search of life-affirming alternatives to free abortion services. Becerra was twice found in violation of conscience-protection laws by HHS\u2019s Conscience and Religious Freedom Division, but now he is in charge of the entire agency. The fox is running the hen house.<\/p>\n

Seeing this looming conflict of interest, lawmakers have rightly questioned Becerra\u2019s commitment to conscience enforcement across many hearings. Every time, Becerra has promised to continue to enforce the law, and vigorously. Here is a sampling from recent<\/a> congressional<\/a> hearings:<\/p>\n