Abortions and surgical technologists and technicians?

[newcatholicwife]

Hello! I need help please.
Does anyone know about being a Catholic and working as a surgical technologist or technician. If you work in a hospital are you required to assist with abortions? I can do it if the mother’s life is in danger, but other than that I can’t. I was so excited to start school for this career but then I came across this article: lifenews.com/2013/06/19/pro-life-military-veteran-fights-abortion-bias-to-graduate-as-surgical-tech/
Someone actually told her she would be “unemployable”.
I know it’ll be hard enough to find a job as a new grad but now I’m worried I won’t be able to working his field at all? I need to be sure before I start school. Thank you so much for your help.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Hospitals generally only perform D&C’s and lifesaving abortions.

By law, they can not force you to assist or perform a routine abortion that isn’t an emergency.

Don’t us Lifesitenews for information, they have problem with credible reporting.

If you can, ask someone already working in the field for advice on your application.

Jim

 

[Tablefor9]

what Jim said. In 20 yrs of healthcare, I’ve never seen a nurse or scrub tech required to assist in a procedure against their religious beliefs. Things may change, and as an OB nurse, you can bet I’m watching for it; right now, this isn’t an issue.

 

[Monica4316]

Not to derail the thread, but I thought the Church is also against abortions that are done to save the mothers life? Treatments that might unintentionally result in the death of the baby are not considered abortion, like chemo. (Mothers are free to reject the treatment on those grounds though, and it can be a heroic thing to do). But I thought direct abortion is still not allowed as the end goal of it is to kill the baby.

 

[Tablefor9]

Monica–

An example of a procedure preformed in a hospital would be like this—say a mom in HELLP syndrome/severe pre-eclampsia and must birth. Baby is pre age of viability. Obstetrician may perform a hysterotomy/csection to birth the baby to attempt to stabilize and save mom, even though baby will not live. Not technically an abortion, but not something that makes anyone feel good at the end of the day.

ETA: you are correct–only second effect makes this okay. The goal isn’t the death of the baby but the correction of the underlying pathology with mom. Direct abortion is not ever, ever okay.

 

[Monica4316]

Thank you for the reply, yes I meant direct abortion…

I also read that a mother isn’t obligated to even take the treatment if it would harm the baby, but in the secondary case it would be an abortion.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Monica–

An example of a procedure preformed in a hospital would be like this—say a mom in HELLP syndrome/severe pre-eclampsia and must birth. Baby is pre age of viability. Obstetrician may perform a hysterotomy/csection to birth the baby to attempt to stabilize and save mom, even though baby will not live. Not technically an abortion, but not something that makes anyone feel good at the end of the day.

ETA: you are correct–only second effect makes this okay. The goal isn’t the death of the baby but the correction of the underlying pathology with mom. Direct abortion is not ever, ever okay.

Correct, the Church has a tap dance around abortion which is the direct killing of the fetus, verses treating the mother’s symptoms, which in the end kills the fetus anyway.

For me, it’s nonsense and the case a couple years ago at St Joseph’s Hospital in Arizona, was a case in point. If the doctors did not terminate the pregnancy, the mother would die and of course the fetus, which was only 11 weeks and could never survive outside the womb. So, the doctors performed an abortion. The Bishop informed them, the nun who approved it and the mother, they were excommunicated.

Now, had the doctors just induced labor, that would’ve been OK, but then the mother’s condition prevented induced labor. Her condition also prevented the doctors from performing a C-Section. So, instead of waiting to watch the mother die, the doctors performed a surgical abortion.

It was a classic case of the Church standing its ground, where the life of the mother was secondary to the pre-viable fetus.

Jim