Posted on 01/12/2008 7:25:42 PM PST by Mrs. Don-o
Action by nurses opposed to abortion has reduced by more than half the number of terminations in a Puerto Rican hospital. Fifty-two nurses in the obstetrics unit at the University Hospital for Adults in San Juan, Puerto Rico, have not been assisting at abortions for several months. The hospital is the only public hospital on the Caribbean island that carries out the operation.
The nurses have cited "conscientious objection" in their defence - a legal right in Puerto Rico that allows medical personnel to refuse participation in procedures they morally oppose. Dr Riccardo Moscoso, the hospital medical director, told The Tablet that abortions are still taking place at the hospital but the administration respects the right of nurses and doctors to refuse to assist. He said the hospital is performing eight to 10 abortions a month with assistance from nurses who have no objections to abortion. Protesting nurses said that abortions had been averaging about five a week before they decided not to assist.
Several nurses spoke to The Tablet, but asked that their names not be used because the situation is "tense". They said that, besides pro-life values, nurses were motivated by disgust with new hospital abortion policies that broaden the reasons justifying abortion and the procedures that can be used to destroy foetuses.
A second nurse called "brutal" some of the new procedures, which include injecting substances into the uterus to kill the foetus and the late-term "partial-birth abortion".
Dr Moscoso said that the nurses' action started last June when dilation and evacuation, the medical term for partial-birth abortion, was introduced. He said that some nurses also opposed a form of abortion in which the foetus is cut up into sections. Because abortion is legal, the state-run hospital has to provide the service, he said. Abortions are carried out in cases of rape, incest, danger to the health of the mother and a malformed foetus, he said. The nurses said that they continue to assist at non-abortion procedures and will enter the operating room to save the life of the woman if complications, such as heavy bleeding, occur after the abortion. The nurses represent several Christian denominations although most are Catholic, as are 85 per cent of the island's 3.9 million inhabitants. Many women seeking abortions at the hospital are poor, and unable to afford a private hospital. Others come because the hospital specialises in difficult pregnancies, such as foetuses with suspected birth defects, or high-risk cases.
For your ping lists :o)
Call the PR ping!!!
Brava! Keep up the good work!
Good nurses!
Hurray to the nurses for standing their ground.
I knew a Catholic who, sadly, went through with an abortion and afterwards wanted to SUE the doctor’s office for the mental agony he and his wife endured during the three-hour wait.
Why the long wait? Because they were told that a “Catholic” doctor was on call and they had to wait for the next doctor to arrive to perform the abortion.
May the Lord bless these nurses.
CLL has the list...but just when I think I have lost faith in my Puerto Rico, news like this restores my faith.
PR had a rather high rate of abortion. I also know that PR women on the mainland have a rate of abortion equal to that of black women (ie the highest rate among all ethnic groups), or did about 10 years ago.
Awesome!
Exo 1:15 Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah,
Exo 1:16 “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.”
Exo 1:17 But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.
Exo 1:18 So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?”
Exo 1:19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.”
Exo 1:20 So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong.
Exo 1:21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.
A good news ping here
Thanks Don! Good article!
“but just when I think I have lost faith in my Puerto Rico, news like this restores my faith”
There are too many things wrong with our beloved Borinquen, but loss of Christian values is not one of them.
Felices Octavitas.
It appears that, even when the nurses’ principled refusal to participate in abortions is being “respected” by hospital administrators, their decision is not sitting that well if the situation is being described as “tense”.
Regardless, “las norsas” are doing the right, moral thing. Dios las bendiga.
That’s what I think...pa’ encima!
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