raising godzillas

Pro-life patients deserve health care providers who share their values

When news broke of a Vermont nurse who sued the hospital she was employed by for forcing her to assist in an abortion, many pro-choice activists responded with the rallying cry of "If you don't want to provide abortions, don't go into healthcare!" In an op-ed published in Vice on September 3rd, Monica R. McLemore, an associate nursing professor at UC San Fransisco, goes to far as to say that "we need to be more discerning about who is worthy of serving the public." She goes on to say suggest that the nurse in the above mentioned case should have put her patient's "need" for an abortion (although privacy laws mean we have no way of knowing if there was a medical need or whether it was an elective abortion) over her own "discomfort".

The use of the word "discomfort" to describe the pro-life objection to abortion shows that McLemore, and those who agree with her, do not understand where that objection comes from. It's not about our comfort level. It's about deliberately taking the life of a growing, developing, genetically unique human. This makes refusing to assist in and perform abortions different from other applications of the conscience clause.

There are good reasons the conscience clause has a bad reputation. It can and has been exercised as a form of bigotry- refusing to issue life saving and regular medical care to people on the basis of race, religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity. There's no instance in which it's moral to refuse life saving care to a patient, for any reason. This would include a case where sepsis or an ectopic pregnancy threatened a mother's life. Nor should a health care provider refuse regular care to someone based on the above reasons. But asking a health care provider to assist in taking a human life (as they see it), is in a different category all together, and suggesting nobody unwilling to do that should avoid the field altogether is unfair to patients as well.

When I was having my children, a couple of decades ago now, I sought a midwife who shared my values. This was important to me because I wanted the person managing my pregnancies to value the children I was carrying as patients, as people equal to me, who she viewed as worthy as protection as born human beings. I know many other mothers who have done the same, in some cases driving an hour or more to find and OB or midwife who shared their values. Advocates for reproductive choice must understand that includes the right of parents to receive obstetric care from providers who share their values- and that means including pro-life doctors, nurses and midwives in the field. 

posted by gojirama @ 5:58 PM