Tag Archives: ZZ: Cenzon-DeCarlo v The Mount Sinai Hospital

YouTube: Victims of the Obama Administration’s assault on religious freedom speak out at Rep. Black’s press conference in support of the Health Care Conscience Rights Act. Speakers included:

Matt Bowman appeared on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss this: Mt. Sinai Ends Forced Abortion-participation Policy. | MP3 audio 11:09 mins

Thomas Messner at the Heritage Foundation: The nurse, Cathy Cenzon-DeCarlo, is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, a public interest law firm that focuses on issues including right of conscience and religious freedom.

LifeSiteNews (2/15): “Pro-life medical personnel shouldn’t be forced to participate in abortions, and the new policies and procedures at Mt. Sinai reflect that,” said Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “The hospital seems to have decided to do the right thing and respect the conscience rights of its employees, who are protected by both federal and state law. We will continue to monitor the situation to make sure that the new policy is followed.”

World Mag: “Pro-life medical personnel shouldn’t be forced to participate in abortions, and the new policies and procedures at Mt. Sinai reflect that,” said ADF senior legal counsel Matt Bowman in a statement. “The hospital seems to have decided to do the right thing and respect the conscience rights of its employees, who are protected by both federal and state law.”

Baptist Press (2/15): “Pro-life medical personnel shouldn’t be forced to participate in abortions, and the new policies and procedures at Mt. Sinai reflect that,” said Matt Bowman, senior legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), in a Feb. 12 written statement. “The hospital seems to have decided to do the right thing and respect the conscience rights of its employees, who are protected by both federal and state law.”

One News Now: ADF attorney Matt Bowman tells OneNewsNow that pro-life personnel should not be forced to assist abortions. “The hospital seems to have decided to do the right thing — to respect the freedom of conscience of employees — because these employees are protected by both federal and state law in their freedom not to assist abortions,” he explains. Bowman adds that Mt. Sinai had known of DeCarlo’s religious objections since 2004.

LifeNews: “Pro-life medical personnel shouldn’t be forced to participate in abortions, and the new policies and procedures at Mt. Sinai reflect that,” said Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “The hospital seems to have decided to do the right thing and respect the conscience rights of its employees, who are protected by both federal and state law. We will continue to monitor the situation to make sure that the new policy is followed.”

HHS investigation requested by Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf of NY nurse prompts new changes at hospital

BizJournals.com: The story, written by The Alliance Defending Freedom on LifeSiteNews.com here www.lifesitenews.com/news/they-said-no-what-happened-when-12-nurses-refused-to-participate-in-abortio/ , introduces a tight-knit group of coworkers who enjoy helping people every day . . . With a little help from lawyers at ADF working in a pro-bono capacity, a court hearing was scheduled to challenge hospital officials regarding the right and legality to force these nurses to perform such work in non-emergency elective circumstances. The case eventually settled though, with a victory for the nurses. “We had gotten everything (the 12 nurses) requested,” Demetrios Stratis, their representing attorney, says. “We’d gotten the hospital to agree not to force them to perform these abortions.” [more]

Live Action News: Alliance Defending Freedom’s cover story in their latest issue of “Faith & Justice” covered the story of twelve nurses who stood up against a hospital when their faith and ethics were on the line. Here is a part of their story, but I would encourage you to read the entire account, found here.

Deseret News: The Alliance Defense Fund filed a complaint with HHS, and Vanderbilt quickly backed down. “Christians and other pro-life members of the medical community shouldn’t be forced to participate in abortions to pursue their profession. That’s what federal law says, and that’s why Vanderbilt is doing the right thing in changing its policy and application,” said ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman.

LifeNews.com: ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman told LifeNews . . . “Pro-life nurses shouldn’t be forced to assist or train in services related to abortions. Federal and state law both prohibit this,” he said. “These 12 nurses have encountered threats to their jobs at this hospital ever since a policy change required them to participate in the abortion cases regardless of their religious and moral objections. The court’s order prevents that until the Nov. 18 hearing, but it is disturbing that the hospital may fight to continue violating laws that clearly protect conscience rights.”

A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order Thursday that prohibits a New Jersey hospital from forcing any of 12 nurses that sued the facility to participate in training or services related to abortions. The order, which the hospital agreed to, is in effect until the court decides whether to issue any additional order at a Nov. 18 hearing.

Charles Toutant at New Jersey Law Journal (subscription): The suit was filed by the Alliance Defense Fund of Scottsdale, Ariz., which describes itself as a Christian and legal policy organization and is opposed to abortion . . . The Alliance Defense Fund believes the UMDNJ case will end differently because it concerns a government-run hospital, unlike the private hospital in the New York case, according to its legal counsel, Matthew Bowman. Private entities aren’t subject to suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983, but government agencies are, says Bowman.

ProLifeBlogs: “Pro-life nurses shouldn’t be forced to assist in abortions against their beliefs,” said ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “No less than 12 nurses have encountered threats to their jobs at this hospital ever since a policy change required them to participate in the abortions regardless of their religious objections. That is flatly illegal.” . . . Demetrios K. Stratis, one of nearly 2,100 attorneys in the ADF alliance is local counsel in the case, Danquah v. University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. ADF is currently involved in a similar lawsuit in New York state court involving a nurse at Mt. Sinai Hospital.

Charisma: The two situations cited in the letter involve clients represented by attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). “Medical professionals should not be punished for holding to their beliefs, and they should not be forced to perform abortions against their conscience,” says ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “Members of the House are justified in asking why the Obama administration would be seeking to repeal such protections, especially in light of the recent examples of abuse involving ADF clients.”

ADF attorney Matt Bowman appeared on the Mary Reichard Show to discuss rights of conscience litigation for healthcare workers. | MP3 audio 21:03 mins

One News Now (includes photo of Matt): Matt Bowman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, applauds lawmakers’ desire to see those laws enforced, not repealed. “It’s right for the members of the United States House to be concerned that the administration of the federal government would decide not to enforce those laws,” says Bowman, “especially in light of the fact that the Alliance Defense Fund has represented already three clients in…the last year who have faith violations of these federal conscience laws.”

Charisma Online (includes photo of Matt Bowman): “Medical professionals should not be punished for holding to their beliefs, and they should not be forced to perform abortions against their conscience,” says ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “Members of the House are justified in asking why the Obama administration would be seeking to repeal such protections, especially in light of the recent examples of abuse involving ADF clients.”

Christian Post: One of the two cases cited in the letter was that of registered New York nurse Catherina DeCarlo. DeCarlo alleged that she was forced by Mt. Sinai Hospital to participate in the abortion of an unborn baby against her moral and religious conscience. The other case was that of two nursing students who were being required to sign a letter committing to assisting in abortions in order to be considered for Vanderbilt University’s obstetrical and gynecological care program. Alliance Defense Fund served as legal counsel in both cases. “Medical professionals should not be punished for holding to their beliefs, and they should not be forced to perform abortions against their conscience,” commented Matt Bowman, ADF legal counsel.

A letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius signed by 46 members of the U.S. House of Representatives Friday asks her to explain why her department is seeking to repeal conscience protections for health care workers in light of known attacks on such workers.

Chuck Donovan writing at The Heritage Foundation / The Foundry: “The decision came just 24 hours after attorneys at the Alliance Defense Fund, a nonprofit legal group, filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) challenging the requirement . . . The Vanderbilt case is a classic example of a conscience violation in the context of health care . . . [The Church Amendment] is silent on key aspects of enforcement . . . the fate of such investigations is very much up in the air as a result of the Obama Administration’ssuspension of the 2008 regulations.”

OneNewsNow: “A New York nurse has lost her appeal of a court decision involving a work incident that she believes violated her conscience rights . . . ‘Unfortunately, the Obama administration has now taken the position that it will not enforce rights under the Church Amendment and has tried to set aside regulations passed in the Bush administration to give the Church Amendments more teeth and to protect pro-life healthcare workers,’ [ADF Attorney Steve Aden] laments.”

James S. Cole writing at MercatorNet: “As a result of the federal courts’ jurisprudence and the current Administration’s unwillingness to enforce the Church Amendment, federal conscience clause protections are dead letters . . . Until the new Congress enacts specific legislation to allow individuals to vindicate the conscience rights Congress has given them (and overrides a Presidential veto), or until a new Administration is inaugurated that will live up to its duty of enforcing the laws on the books, federal conscience clause protections might as well not exist.”

LifeNews: “This month the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) reviewed and reaffirmed the 2007 Ethics Committee Number 385, entitled The Limits of Conscientious Refusal in Reproductive Medicine . . . The ACOG Ethics Committee rule requires pro-life physicians to refer for abortions. Furthermore, it disparages the notion of conscience to nothing more than a subjective feeling.”

LifeSiteNews: “Today the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Catholic nurse who was forced by a New York hospital to participate in an abortion does not have the right to sue her employer . . . Alliance Defence Fund (ADF) attorneys had filed two suits in the case – one federal, filed in July 2009, and another state, filed earlier this year. ”

Cenzon-DeCarlo v. The Mount Sinai Hospital, No. 10-0556 (2nd Cir. Nov. 23, 2010)

“Today, the Second Circuit ruled that a private individual does not have a right to sue her employer after being forced to participate in an abortion.”

ADF Allied Attorney Piero Tozzi discusses Cenzon-DeCarlo v The Mount Sinai Hospital on Currents: “Six years ago, Catherina Cenzon de Carlo went to work at Mount Sinai hospital, and told her employers that – because of her religious beliefs — she could not assist with abortions. But last year, she says, Mt. Sinai violated her conscience rights, and ordered her to take part in an abortion. Now she’s suing the hospital. She’s being represented by the Alliance Defense Fund, and last week her lawyer joined me to discuss her story.” | MP4 8:23

Today’s Catholic: “Cenzon-DeCarlo is being represented in the case by attorneys for the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based Christian legal alliance dedicated to defending religious liberty, sanctity of life, marriage and the family. ‘Pro-life nurses shouldn’t be forced to assist in abortions against their beliefs,’ said [Matt Bowman], the defense fund’s legal counsel, in a report from Catholic News Service.”

Medical News Today: “[Matthew Bowman] of the Alliance Defense Fund said the law ‘is thousands of pages of new government power, decision-making and funding.’ He added, ‘Any government power over health care can be exercised in a way that discriminates against pro-life health providers, especially when officials already support abortion and opposes enforcement of conscience laws.’”

Washington Post: “‘The act is thousands of pages of new government power, decision-making and funding,’ said [Matthew S. Bowman] of the Alliance Defense Fund, which represents workers who object on religious grounds to being required to provide some forms of health care. ‘Any government power over health care can be exercised in a way that discriminates against pro-life health providers, especially when officials already support abortion and oppose enforcement of conscience laws.’”

Christian Post: “The Alliance Defense Fund is representing Cenzon-DeCarlo, arguing that forcing her to assist in taking the life of a 22-week pre-born child is, ‘illegal, unethical, and a violation of Cathy’s rights of conscience as a devout Catholic.’ . . . Alan Sears, with the Alliance Defense Fund, has written a great article about this at ColsonCenter.org. He quotes Chai Feldblum, appointed by President Obama to serve on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. According to Feldblum, ‘Protecting one group’s identity may, at times, require that we burden others’ belief liberty.’”

OneNewsNow: “ADF legal counsel Matt Bowman explains the dispute. ‘In this case, a nurse, Cathy (Cenzon) DeCarlo, was illegally forced to assist [in an] abortion by a hospital that receives hundreds of millions of dollars of federal funds,’ he reports. ‘We filed now two lawsuits against this hospital to make sure that Cathy DeCarlo’s rights are protected.’” | ADF News Release

Chuck Colson writing at Crosswalk: “The Alliance Defense Fund is representing Cenzon-DeCarlo, arguing that forcing her to assist in taking the life of a 22-week pre-born child is, ‘illegal, unethical, and a violation of Cathy’s rights of conscience as a devout Catholic.’ The ADF says Mt. Sinai violated state laws and intentionally inflicted emotional distress upon her.”

ADF attorney Matt Bowman appeared on Reality Check Live to discuss the Cenzon-DeCarlo case involving a nurse forced to participate in an abortion. | The MP3 runs approximately 15 minutes. | ADF press release: NY nurse forced to participate in abortion files additional suit against Mt. Sinai Hospital

NY Daily News: “‘They knew her objections on the day she was hired,’ said lawyer [Matt Bowman] of the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian organization that filed suit in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Cenzon-DeCarlo’s behalf.” | ADF News Release

Evangelical Examiner: “‘An individual’s conscience is often what brings health care workers into the medical field,’ said lead counsel Joseph Ruta, one of more than 1,600 attorneys in the ADF alliance. ‘Denying or coercing their conscience will likely drive them right out.’”

LifeSiteNews: “Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a lawsuit Friday against Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York state court, on behalf of a nurse forced to participate in a late-term abortion procedure under threat of disciplinary action, including possible termination and loss of her license . . . ‘Pro-life nurses shouldn’t be forced to assist in abortions against their beliefs,’ said ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. ‘It is illegal, unethical, and a violation of Cathy’s rights of conscience as a devout Catholic to require her to participate in terminating the life of a 22-week pre-born child.’”

“The state suit was filed in addition to pro-life nurse Cathy Cenzon-DeCarlo’s federal lawsuit, which is on appeal, because her rights of conscience are also protected by New York law.”

ADF Attorney Matt Bowman writing in The Washington Examiner: “Cathy DeCarlo of Brooklyn and her family followed the health reform debate more closely than some others might have. Cathy is Catholic and a nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Less than a year ago, the federally-funded hospital forced her to assist in a 22-week dismemberment abortion, despite her tearful pleas that she be spared the horror. President Obama’s health reform executive order on abortion claims to protect the conscience rights of pro-life health providers like Cathy. But on closer reading, the order proves to be yet another presidential action that makes every pro-life health care provider a potential ‘next Cathy DeCarlo.’”

ChristianNewsWire: “Representing Concerned Women for America, America’s largest women’s advocacy group and four other groups of pro-life medical professionals, attorneys with Advocates International filed a joint motion to lift stay and at last permit their intervention in three lawsuits commenced on January 15, 2009 that seek to invalidate a final federal regulation protecting medical professionals from discrimination because they refuse to participate in abortions . . . On behalf of the Christian Medical Association, Catholic Medical Association, and American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund and Christian Legal Society also joined in this motion [ADF news release] to lift stay and intervene asking the court to be allowed to defend the law.”

In a busy week of debate in Washington over health care reform, attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund are moving forward with efforts in four different lawsuits to ensure that conscience protections for health care workers are not ignored.

“Last week the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) assured the public that its centers don’t intend to perform abortions. NACHC’s intentions, however, should be viewed with scrutiny.”

Rob Vischer reports on the conference at the Mirror of Justice Blog and mentions the Cenzon-DeCarlo case that ADF is litigating.

ADF Senior Legal Counsel Steven H. Aden writing in the Washington Examiner: “In cases like these all over America, medical professionals are being harassed, intimidated, ostracized, and sued for having the gall to believe that innocent life is sacred and for choosing to “opt out” of destroying that life. So widespread is the persecution, and so increasingly open are elected officials like Attorney General Coakley and academics like Dr. Cantor in endorsing it, that even casual observers can only come to one of two conclusion . . . And if the price of that saturation coverage is the closing of every Catholic, Evangelical, and Protestant-sponsored hospital and the dismissal of every Christian doctor, nurse, pharmacist, and paramedic in the country, so be it.”

ADF attorney Doug Napier appeared on the Michael Medved Show to discuss Cenzon-DeCarlo v. The Mount Sinai Hospital involving a pro-life nurse forced to participate in an abortion.

The MP3 runs just over 33 minutes.

Related ADF Information Page

LifeNews: Senator’s Amendment Would Protect Conscience Rights of Pro-Life Medical Staff

Hot Air: “Matt Bowman, legal counsel for the ADF, explained that the hospital could not legally have required the nurse to participate in the abortion even if the case had been a ‘Category I,’ meaning that the patient required ‘immediate surgical intervention for life or limb threatening conditions.’ Federal statutes prohibit recipients of federal health funds from requiring employees to perform abortions, Bowman told CNA.”

LifeNews: “The Coburn amendment would ensure that health care providers do not have to participate in the performance of abortions.”