A coalition of 21 senators and 63 members of the U.S. House have signed a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra saying the Biden administration broke the law by dropping a lawsuit filed on behalf of a pro-life nurse forced to participate in an abortion in violation of federal conscience laws.
They objected to the administration’s move last month to drop a lawsuit filed by the Trump administration against the University of Vermont Medical Center on behalf of a pro-life nurse who claims to have been coerced to assist with an abortion despite federal laws that protect the conscience rights of health-care workers. Additionally, HHS dropped a 2019 notice of violation filed against the hospital.
The lawmakers characterized the administration’s handling of the case as “a profound miscarriage of justice.” They called the move a rejection of the administration’s commitment to enforce federal conscience laws for Americans of all religious beliefs, especially those who object to abortion.
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“Your actions signal to employers all around the country that they don’t need to comply with the law, because your agencies will not enforce it,” they wrote. “They also signal that this administration would rather allow consciences to be violated at the behest of the abortion lobby than enforce the law and protect religious liberty.”
According to Claire Murray, who served as principal deputy attorney general at the Justice Department during the Trump administration, the nurse at the center of the lawsuit was included on the hospital’s conscientious objectors list to abortion
The congressional letter echoed the Trump administration’s claim that the medical school broke the law by violating the Church Amendments. The amendments “prohibit HHS grant recipients from discriminating against health-care personnel who ‘refused to perform or assist in the performance of… abortion on the grounds that his performance or assistance in the performance of the procedure or abortion would be contrary to his religious beliefs or moral convictions.”
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice