{"id":1779295,"date":"2022-12-18T08:24:46","date_gmt":"2022-12-18T13:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1779295"},"modified":"2022-12-18T10:34:19","modified_gmt":"2022-12-18T15:34:19","slug":"department-of-veterans-affairs-sued-over-new-federally-funded-abortion-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/department-of-veterans-affairs-sued-over-new-federally-funded-abortion-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Department of Veterans Affairs Sued Over New Federally Funded Abortion Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdepartment-of-veterans-affairs-sued-over-new-federally-funded-abortion-policy%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1779295&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/justthenews.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/social_media_share\/public\/2022-06\/GettyImages-1354285743.jpg?h=4f32c01f&#038;itok=M2eQz33j\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\"   style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>A health care worker has filed suit against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs saying the federal agency has not allowed her a religious accommodation to avoid participating in the agency\u2019s new federally funded abortion plan.<\/p>\n<p>First Liberty Institute filed a lawsuit on behalf of Stephanie Carter, a nurse practitioner at the Olin E. Teague Veterans\u2019 Center in Temple, Texas. She&#8217;s worked for the VA for 23 years.<\/p>\n<p>The issue began after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade earlier this year, allowing states to make their own laws about abortion. In response, the Biden administration announced the VA would begin performing elective abortions at VA medical facilities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIgnoring the value and necessity of that public debate, the Biden Administration decided to usurp congressional directives and immediately provide abortions and abortion counseling to veterans at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (\u201cVA\u201d) medical facilities despite a decades-long prohibition on such activity,\u201d the <a href=\"https:\/\/firstliberty.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/001-VA-Complaint_Redacted.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">suit<\/a> reads.<\/p>\n<p>This news put Carter in a tough spot. She requested a religious accommodation to avoid the new rule, but she says she was told there was no such option.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs an Army veteran herself, and as a Christian who views her nursing work as a calling, Ms. Carter relished the opportunity to serve her fellow veterans as a nurse practitioner,\u201d the suit said. \u201cAll of that changed suddenly on September 9, 2022, when the VA published the Rule. Because of her religious beliefs, Ms. Carter cannot perform, prescribe, or counsel for abortions, or work in a facility that performs abortion services for reasons other than to save the life of the mother because, in her view, unborn babies are created in the image of God and should be protected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Carter\u2019s lawyers pointed to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a law that strictly requires the federal government to accommodate religious objections similar to this one.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe VA has no compelling interest in applying the Rule to Ms. Carter because Congress also did not grant the Secretary of the VA the authority to implement the Rule without following the democratic rulemaking process required by the Administrative Procedure Act\u2026,\u201d the suit said.<\/p>\n<p>The VA has pushed back, though.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom the moment VA announced this new rule, Secretary McDonough has made clear to all employees that their religious beliefs are protected here at VA,&#8221; said VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes. &#8220;While we cannot comment on ongoing litigation, VA does provide accommodation for VA employees who wish to opt out of providing abortion counseling or services. We are currently honoring exemption requests that come through VA supervisors. We have provided all VA health care employees with this information \u2013 including information for how to exercise those protections through VA\u2019s Office of Resolution Management Diversity and Inclusion \u2013 and we have encouraged employees to inform their supervisors of any requests for exemptions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The violation of workers\u2019 conscience and taxpayer funding of abortion has sparked criticism and now, a legal filing. How the case will turn out remains to be seen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is unconscionable that the Biden administration would force health care workers at VA facilities to violate their consciences,\u201d said Danielle Runyan, senior counsel for First Liberty Institute. \u201cThe VA should be focused on caring for the men and women who bravely served to protect our country, not on performing illegal abortions. The new VA Rule disregards longstanding federal law that prohibits VA clinics from performing abortions and fails to account for the sincerely held religious beliefs of medical providers who are impacted by the Rule.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A health care worker has filed suit against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs saying the federal agency has not allowed her a religious accommodation to avoid participating in the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1606236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[4310,10077,5458,4724,10076,9826,4326,3819,5266,4873],"class_list":["post-1779295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-abortion","tag-affairs","tag-bongino","tag-department","tag-federally","tag-funded","tag-policy","tag-report","tag-sued","tag-veterans"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1779295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1779295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1779295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1606236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1779295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1779295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1779295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}