The U.S. bishops’ conference pro-life committee chairman is urging lawmakers to uphold current policy prohibiting U.S. military hospitals, and other federal health facilities, from performing abortions.
Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities, stated this in a letter sent Tuesday to the U.S. senators.
He asked that the lawmakers, when they review the National Defense Authorization Act for 2011, would “remove from the bill a misguided committee amendment” that authorizes abortions at military hospitals both in the United States and worldwide.
The prelate backed Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, who also sent a letter to the senators on June 17, “urging congress not to impose this tremendous burden on the consciences of Catholic and other health care personnel who joined our armed services to save and protect innocent life, not to destroy it.”
My perspective on this issue is a little different in that I had the honor to command three different Army hospitals in the US and Korea. Even a limited authorization to perform elective abortions in overseas military hospitals at the patient’s expense would present a moral dilemma for the commanders and staffs of those facilities. The gist of the dilemma is captured in the military rule: A commander is responsible for all that his unit does or fails to do. Thus, were the commander to permit the performance of an elective abortion in his hospital, he would have to bear the responsibility–in every legal and moral sense–for having done so. In my case, I would have resigned from command and made my objections public. Happily for me, there was no such authorization in the years that I commanded so the issue never arose. In the current situation, even though military medicine has become much more centralized and bureaucratic, the fact that there is a single officer in command of each hospital maintains the central moral and ethical relationship between that commander and the acts and actions carried out by the unit. It will be interesting to see what the reaction of currently serving hospital commanders will be if this misguided piece of legislation becomes law.
Jim K – it would also become problematic for the doctors and staff who would be expected to participate. In facilities with small staff ‘conscience clause’ quickly becomes ‘failing to honor the patient’s wishes’ and ‘hindering the patient’s access to basic and necessary medical care’. (Just ask US pharmacists about conscience clause provisions.)
#2 and whereas a civilian pharmacist or physician can lose his or her job for refusing to dispense abortifacients or participate in an abortion.. what happens in the military? Can/could they be brought up on charges under the UCMJ?
As a retired military member, my recollection of the Uniform Code of Military Justice is that it deals solely with the conduct of military personnel in many and diverse areas; one being the commission of crimes on American military installations wherever U.S. troops are stationed and deployed. I do not believe that there is any Article in the UCMJ which specifically covers the refusal to dispense the drugs which you mentioned, Chris Molter. I would have to have access to the latest Manual for Courts Martial in order to determine that, and therefore, your question can best be answered by a commanding officer or military lawyer now on active duty.