2014
RCOG faculty bars prolife doctors from receiving its degrees and diplomas
(United Kingdom: 2014)
Dr. Peter Saunders | Doctors and nurses who have a moral objection to prescribing 'contraceptives' which act by killing human embryos are to be barred from receiving diplomas in sexual and reproductive health even if they undertake the necessary training according to new guidelines. . .
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Swedish nurse takes a stand on conscience rights
If soldiers can object to using weapons, why can't health professionals refuse to assist at abortions?
(Sweden: 2013)
Mariola O'Brien | . . .Out of the 47 member states in the European Council, Finland and Sweden are the only two which do not uphold freedom of conscience in practice. Ellinor Grimmark, 37, is the first midwife in Sweden to report a hospital to the Discrimination Ombudsman (DO) concerning abortion. . . Newly-graduated, she was fired from her position last summer because she refused to assist abortions. . .
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Sweden has it all - except freedom of conscience
Carolyn Moynihan | Because of its welfare state and gender equity policies Sweden has become a beacon of progressiveness in everything that affects women. But there is one kind of woman the Scandinavian state seems to have no time for: a health professional who objects to abortion. . .
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Swedish midwife opposed to abortion appeals to European Court of Human Rights
Michael Cook | Swedish midwife Ellinor Grimmark has decided to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights over Sweden's hard line on conscientious objection. The Swedish Appeals Court decided earlier this month that the government can force medical professionals to perform and cooperate in abortions, or else be forced out of their profession. Because the ruling in
Grimmark v. Landstinget i Jönköpings Län appears to contradict international law protecting conscientious objection, Grimmark wants to appeal to Strasbourg. . . .
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2011
ECLJ to the Council of Europe:
Spain violates conscientious freedom of medical practitioners
(Spain: July, 2011)
ECJL | . . .In Spain, health professionals suffer structural and systemic violations of their rights. Doctors, nurses, and other medical staff that object to performing or assisting with abortion procedures are coerced and suffer career-crippling sanctions or are legally prosecuted for attempting to exercise this fundamental right, which is recognized by both European and international law. . .
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Equality legislation used to defend conscientious objection to abortion
(United Kingdom: 2011)
John Smeaton| The two nurses . . .were employed at a hospital for ordinary nursing duties. They were then allocated to work once a week at an abortion clinic in the hospital. The abortion process did not involve surgical abortion but the increasingly common process of "early medical abortion" . . .When they became aware that they were participating in abortion they told their management that they did not want to continue but were then told that they had no choice in the matter. . .
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2010
Nurses who refused to assist in abortion disciplined
(New York, USA: 2010)
Pete Sheehan | Eight nurses who refused to participate in an abortion at Nassau University Medical Center here March 31 are resisting disciplinary action levied on them by hospital officials. . .
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Illinois HB2354 to nullify Health Care Right of Conscience Act
(Illinois, USA: 2009-2010)
Sean Murphy | Illinois has a broadly worded protection of conscience law for health care workers, one of the most comprehensive in the United States. There seems to be no evidence that the law has caused any problem in the state. Perhaps for this reason, those who want to suppress freedom of conscience have not tried torepeal or amend the existing law. Instead, they have introduced a bill that will effectively nullify the
Health Care Right of Conscience Act. . .
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