It does not have to force abortions on birthing units either. And if hospitals pride themselves on being responsive to the community, this one should make plain how the recent decision was made and why the nurses are under such compulsion. I find this distressful and feel no government has a right to inflict this treatment or moral responsibility on an individual. The Liberal government argued in 1969 that it was self-evident that no one would be forced to participate in abortions and therefore a conscience clause was unnecessary. As Father Alphonse de Valk pointed out in his Morality and Law in Canadian Politics , since 1969 there has been a serious decline of tolerance concerning the freedom not to perform abortions.
Most nurses find the destruction of life the very opposite of what they believe.
So a conscience clause is becoming ever more necessary. Such callous treatment of nurses as is going on at the Markham-Stoufville Hospital is completely wrong. Whether they will feel satisfied to trust their case to the tender mercies of the Commission is open to question. At any rate, they have been forced to become involved in a most disagreeable conflict with the hospital authorities and to go to the expense of employing legal counsel. Largely because of pressure from two pro-abortion doctors, they feel that their own respect for human life is being dismissed as unimportant, and that there is a steady downward descent in working conditions at the hospital.