By EDMUND M. SILVESTRE
QUOTE
A Filipina Catholic nurse has been swamped with words of encouragement and support after suing The Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan for allegedly forcing her to assist in a late-term abortion against her will and religion under the threat of disciplinary action, including possible termination and loss of her license.
The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) filed the civil lawsuit in the New York Eastern District Court in Brooklyn on July 21 on behalf of senior nurse Catherina Lorena Cenzon-DeCarlo, 35, of Brooklyn.
The complaint claims that despite her repeated objections, the Baguio City-born nurse and niece of Baguio City Bishop Carlito Cenzon, was forced by hospital administrators to honor a last-minute summon and participate in the procedure "which dismembered a pre-born child in the 22nd week of gestation."
"It felt like a horror film unfolding," Cenzon-DeCarlo, a mother of a year-old baby, told the New York Post.
She claims she has had gruesome nightmares and hasn't been able to sleep since the May 24 incident.
"I felt violated and betrayed," said Cenzon-DeCarlo, who has sought therapy after she began suffering reportedly from nightmares, as well as insomnia and a breakdown in personal and religious relationships. "I couldn't believe that this could happen.
The nurse -a 1995 graduate of St. Louis University in Baguio -is described in court papers as having a reputation for "a high level of expertise" and competency in various medical disciplines.
She was reportedly accustomed to assisting at similar procedures that followed a miscarriage.
Support from citizens
Cenzon-DeCarlo's attorney Matt Bowman of ADF told the Filipino Reporter that ADF has been receiving "calls from citizens expressing support" for the Filipina nurse.
"We forward all the calls and messages to Mrs. Cenzon-DeCarlo and she's glad people understand her situation," Bowman said.
Darlene Borromeo, a veteran nursing leader from St. Joseph's Hospital in Paterson, N.J., said Cenzon-DeCarlo was put by Mount Sinai in "a very hard position."
"It's her moral or ethical stand that was violated," Borromeo said.
"Every healthcare provider is always taught and expected to ‘do no harm,'" Borromeo added. "And every hospital always asks its medical employees on their ethical or moral stand, and the employers must respect it. If I were in her position, I would also get upset and I would disobey the order. But then it's hard to just say that when you're under tremendous pressure, especially with your life and future at stake."
The lawsuit states: "Compelling Mrs. Cenzon-DeCarlo to assist in this abortion against her religious beliefs exposed her to brutal psychological harm. By assisting, she was forced to witness the killing of a 22-week-old preborn child by dismemberment."
"Because it was included in the requirements of her nursing duties as an assistant on the case, Mount Sinai forced Mrs. Cenon-DeCarlo to watch the doctor remove the bloody arms and legs of the child from its mother's body with forceps, and then after the surgery, to view the bloody body parts in the specimen cup, put saline in the cup, and take it to the specimen area."
In the lawsuit, Cenzon-DeCarlo's attorney said the hospital exaggerated the patient's condition and claimed the woman could die if DeCarlo did not follow orders.
"By federal law, hospitals that receive federal funds cannot force employees to participate in abortion procedures under any circumstances," said Bowman, a constitutional law attorney in Washington, D.C.
The complaint is also requesting a preliminary injunction that would order the hospital to honor the plaintiff's religious objection against assisting in abortion and refrain from retaliation against her while the case moves forward.
Begged for replacement
The Filipina immigrant RN was 30 minutes into her early-morning shift when she realized she had been assigned to an abortion. She begged her supervisor to find a replacement nurse for the procedure.
The hospital had a six-hour window to find a fill-in, he suit says.
Her superiors reportedly told a weeping Cenzon-DeCarlo the abortion was necessary because the patient had preeclampsia, a condition marked by high blood pressure that can lead to seizures or death if left untreated, and that the nurse was needed to abort the baby.
The nurse said she knew such a condition can be treated without the necessity of an abortion, the suit says.
When Cenzon-DeCarlo was told the unborn child was alive, she immediately objected to Dr. Noel Strong, the resident assigned to the procedure.
A series of calls to the nursing supervisor Fran Carpo and her supervisor Ella Shapiro followed, according to the suit.
The orders came back from Carpo that the Filipina nurse must assist in the procedure, the suit says.
Cenzon-DeCarlo reportedly repeated her longstanding objection and pleaded with Carpo to call other nurses instead.
Carpo said that Shapiro had insisted that Cenzon-DeCarlo assist on the procedure, and had prohibited Carpo from even trying to call other nurses as replacement.
Carpo also said that "Dr. Silverstein had yelled at her over the phone in opposition to any delay in the case as a result of Cenzon-DeCarlo's request for accommodation," the court document explains.
Then the threats began, the suit says.
‘Patient not in danger'
Cenzon-DeCarlo contends in her suit that the patient's life was not in danger. She argued that the patient was not even on magnesium therapy, a common treatment for preeclampsia, and did not have problems indicating an emergency.
Her pleas were rejected, and instead she was threatened with career-ending charges of insubordination and patient abandonment, according to the lawsuit.
Cenzon-DeCarlo gave in to the pressure and assisted in the procedure against her will.
According to ADF, the patient was not in a crisis at the time of the surgery and the hospital could have asked another nurse to participate.
A "Category I" case is reserved for a patient requiring immediate surgery for life-threatening conditions, while a "Category II" classification is for operations needing to occur within six hours.
"The hospital claimed this particular abortion case was an emergency; however, records show the patient's condition was not labeled even a Category II," ADF said.
Cenzon-DeCarlo was an operating room nurse at The Medical City, the largest Philippine hospital located in Pasig City, before she moved to New York City in 2001 and started at Mount Sinai on the East Side also as an OR nurse in 2004.
During her job interview, an administrator asked Cenzon-DeCarlo whether she'd be willing to participate in abortions and she flatly said no, Bowman said. The nurse said she put her beliefs in writing.
"This hospital has known of her objection to abortion for almost five years," her lawyer noted.
Hospital retaliation?
The day after the procedure, Cenzon-DeCarlo filed a grievance with her union.
Later that week, she was cornered by two supervisors who told her if she wanted any more overtime shifts, she would have to sign a statement agreeing to participate in abortions, the suit says.
When she refused to sign, the hospital dramatically cut her on-call assignments the following month, the suit claims, saying she was assigned to one overtime shift, rather than the eight or nine she usually received.
Although she's still working at Mount Sinai, she's asking a court to order the hospital to pay unspecified damages, restore her shifts and respect her objections to abortion.
"I emigrated to this country in the belief that here religious freedom is sacred," said Cenzon-DeCarlo, who also worked as a nurse at the Philippine National Red Cross and Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center. "Doctors and nurses shouldn't be forced to abandon their beliefs and participate in abortion in order to keep their jobs."
ADF, a Christian group seeking to put a national spotlight on the case, said the suit also seeks to force Mount Sinai to give up federal funding it receives, because it failed to uphold a federal rule protecting employees who have moral objections to controversial procedures.
New York ADF-allied attorneys Joseph Ruta and Piero Tozzi are serving as local counsels in the case.
Mount Sinai has no comment to the lawsuit.
Galen Sherwin, the director of the New York Civil Liberties Union's Reproductive Rights Project, said the case centered on whether a medical emergency existed.
"The law provides protections for individuals who object to performing abortions, but at the same time, health-care professionals are not permitted to abandon patients," Sherwin said.
Obama's ‘conscience rules'
Cenzon-DeCarlo's case against Mount Sinai Hospital comes as Republicans and Democrats battle over the Obama Administration's efforts to overhaul federal "conscience rules" that protect medical workers who refuse to participate in such controversial procedures as abortion because of religious or moral objections, according to a Post report.
Former President George W. Bush bolstered the "conscience clause" in the waning days of his administration, requiring institutions that get federal funding to prove they were respecting medical workers' right to bow out of controversial procedures.
The change was lauded by religious and pro-life groups but criticized by others as overly broad.
Some Republicans fear the Obama Administration is moving to weaken the clause and repeal the Bush boost to the rule.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has been reviewing the rules and accepting comments on proposed changes.
While HHS is deciding whether to repeal or simply revise the rule, the agency asserted in an April report that "providers will continue to be protected...by existing conscience-clause statutes."
Meanwhile, the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), of which Cenzon-DeCarlo is a member, declined to comment.
"It's a law case," NYSNA Randi Hoffman told the Reporter. "Let the court of law decide."
The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) filed the civil lawsuit in the New York Eastern District Court in Brooklyn on July 21 on behalf of senior nurse Catherina Lorena Cenzon-DeCarlo, 35, of Brooklyn.
The complaint claims that despite her repeated objections, the Baguio City-born nurse and niece of Baguio City Bishop Carlito Cenzon, was forced by hospital administrators to honor a last-minute summon and participate in the procedure "which dismembered a pre-born child in the 22nd week of gestation."
"It felt like a horror film unfolding," Cenzon-DeCarlo, a mother of a year-old baby, told the New York Post.
She claims she has had gruesome nightmares and hasn't been able to sleep since the May 24 incident.
"I felt violated and betrayed," said Cenzon-DeCarlo, who has sought therapy after she began suffering reportedly from nightmares, as well as insomnia and a breakdown in personal and religious relationships. "I couldn't believe that this could happen.
The nurse -a 1995 graduate of St. Louis University in Baguio -is described in court papers as having a reputation for "a high level of expertise" and competency in various medical disciplines.
She was reportedly accustomed to assisting at similar procedures that followed a miscarriage.
Support from citizens
Cenzon-DeCarlo's attorney Matt Bowman of ADF told the Filipino Reporter that ADF has been receiving "calls from citizens expressing support" for the Filipina nurse.
"We forward all the calls and messages to Mrs. Cenzon-DeCarlo and she's glad people understand her situation," Bowman said.
Darlene Borromeo, a veteran nursing leader from St. Joseph's Hospital in Paterson, N.J., said Cenzon-DeCarlo was put by Mount Sinai in "a very hard position."
"It's her moral or ethical stand that was violated," Borromeo said.
"Every healthcare provider is always taught and expected to ‘do no harm,'" Borromeo added. "And every hospital always asks its medical employees on their ethical or moral stand, and the employers must respect it. If I were in her position, I would also get upset and I would disobey the order. But then it's hard to just say that when you're under tremendous pressure, especially with your life and future at stake."
The lawsuit states: "Compelling Mrs. Cenzon-DeCarlo to assist in this abortion against her religious beliefs exposed her to brutal psychological harm. By assisting, she was forced to witness the killing of a 22-week-old preborn child by dismemberment."
"Because it was included in the requirements of her nursing duties as an assistant on the case, Mount Sinai forced Mrs. Cenon-DeCarlo to watch the doctor remove the bloody arms and legs of the child from its mother's body with forceps, and then after the surgery, to view the bloody body parts in the specimen cup, put saline in the cup, and take it to the specimen area."
In the lawsuit, Cenzon-DeCarlo's attorney said the hospital exaggerated the patient's condition and claimed the woman could die if DeCarlo did not follow orders.
"By federal law, hospitals that receive federal funds cannot force employees to participate in abortion procedures under any circumstances," said Bowman, a constitutional law attorney in Washington, D.C.
The complaint is also requesting a preliminary injunction that would order the hospital to honor the plaintiff's religious objection against assisting in abortion and refrain from retaliation against her while the case moves forward.
Begged for replacement
The Filipina immigrant RN was 30 minutes into her early-morning shift when she realized she had been assigned to an abortion. She begged her supervisor to find a replacement nurse for the procedure.
The hospital had a six-hour window to find a fill-in, he suit says.
Her superiors reportedly told a weeping Cenzon-DeCarlo the abortion was necessary because the patient had preeclampsia, a condition marked by high blood pressure that can lead to seizures or death if left untreated, and that the nurse was needed to abort the baby.
The nurse said she knew such a condition can be treated without the necessity of an abortion, the suit says.
When Cenzon-DeCarlo was told the unborn child was alive, she immediately objected to Dr. Noel Strong, the resident assigned to the procedure.
A series of calls to the nursing supervisor Fran Carpo and her supervisor Ella Shapiro followed, according to the suit.
The orders came back from Carpo that the Filipina nurse must assist in the procedure, the suit says.
Cenzon-DeCarlo reportedly repeated her longstanding objection and pleaded with Carpo to call other nurses instead.
Carpo said that Shapiro had insisted that Cenzon-DeCarlo assist on the procedure, and had prohibited Carpo from even trying to call other nurses as replacement.
Carpo also said that "Dr. Silverstein had yelled at her over the phone in opposition to any delay in the case as a result of Cenzon-DeCarlo's request for accommodation," the court document explains.
Then the threats began, the suit says.
‘Patient not in danger'
Cenzon-DeCarlo contends in her suit that the patient's life was not in danger. She argued that the patient was not even on magnesium therapy, a common treatment for preeclampsia, and did not have problems indicating an emergency.
Her pleas were rejected, and instead she was threatened with career-ending charges of insubordination and patient abandonment, according to the lawsuit.
Cenzon-DeCarlo gave in to the pressure and assisted in the procedure against her will.
According to ADF, the patient was not in a crisis at the time of the surgery and the hospital could have asked another nurse to participate.
A "Category I" case is reserved for a patient requiring immediate surgery for life-threatening conditions, while a "Category II" classification is for operations needing to occur within six hours.
"The hospital claimed this particular abortion case was an emergency; however, records show the patient's condition was not labeled even a Category II," ADF said.
Cenzon-DeCarlo was an operating room nurse at The Medical City, the largest Philippine hospital located in Pasig City, before she moved to New York City in 2001 and started at Mount Sinai on the East Side also as an OR nurse in 2004.
During her job interview, an administrator asked Cenzon-DeCarlo whether she'd be willing to participate in abortions and she flatly said no, Bowman said. The nurse said she put her beliefs in writing.
"This hospital has known of her objection to abortion for almost five years," her lawyer noted.
Hospital retaliation?
The day after the procedure, Cenzon-DeCarlo filed a grievance with her union.
Later that week, she was cornered by two supervisors who told her if she wanted any more overtime shifts, she would have to sign a statement agreeing to participate in abortions, the suit says.
When she refused to sign, the hospital dramatically cut her on-call assignments the following month, the suit claims, saying she was assigned to one overtime shift, rather than the eight or nine she usually received.
Although she's still working at Mount Sinai, she's asking a court to order the hospital to pay unspecified damages, restore her shifts and respect her objections to abortion.
"I emigrated to this country in the belief that here religious freedom is sacred," said Cenzon-DeCarlo, who also worked as a nurse at the Philippine National Red Cross and Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center. "Doctors and nurses shouldn't be forced to abandon their beliefs and participate in abortion in order to keep their jobs."
ADF, a Christian group seeking to put a national spotlight on the case, said the suit also seeks to force Mount Sinai to give up federal funding it receives, because it failed to uphold a federal rule protecting employees who have moral objections to controversial procedures.
New York ADF-allied attorneys Joseph Ruta and Piero Tozzi are serving as local counsels in the case.
Mount Sinai has no comment to the lawsuit.
Galen Sherwin, the director of the New York Civil Liberties Union's Reproductive Rights Project, said the case centered on whether a medical emergency existed.
"The law provides protections for individuals who object to performing abortions, but at the same time, health-care professionals are not permitted to abandon patients," Sherwin said.
Obama's ‘conscience rules'
Cenzon-DeCarlo's case against Mount Sinai Hospital comes as Republicans and Democrats battle over the Obama Administration's efforts to overhaul federal "conscience rules" that protect medical workers who refuse to participate in such controversial procedures as abortion because of religious or moral objections, according to a Post report.
Former President George W. Bush bolstered the "conscience clause" in the waning days of his administration, requiring institutions that get federal funding to prove they were respecting medical workers' right to bow out of controversial procedures.
The change was lauded by religious and pro-life groups but criticized by others as overly broad.
Some Republicans fear the Obama Administration is moving to weaken the clause and repeal the Bush boost to the rule.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has been reviewing the rules and accepting comments on proposed changes.
While HHS is deciding whether to repeal or simply revise the rule, the agency asserted in an April report that "providers will continue to be protected...by existing conscience-clause statutes."
Meanwhile, the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), of which Cenzon-DeCarlo is a member, declined to comment.
"It's a law case," NYSNA Randi Hoffman told the Reporter. "Let the court of law decide."
