American citizens studying Scottish midwives have been suspended from hospitals and investigated to express their life support views on private Facebook groups.
Saraspencer, a 30-year-old native Californian and mother of three, is studying to become a midwife at Edinburgh Napier University.
Just weeks after she was placed in the National Health Services (NHS) Fife Hospital's new and antenatal care clinic last April, Spencer responded to a private Facebook group post for training midwives. The post asked: “Does midwife have anything to do with abortion?
According to Daily Mail:
Under British law, nurses may refuse to be involved in abortion if they have strong moral or religious objections.
Meanwhile, the Council on Freedom of Expression Guidance from UK Regulators Nursing and Midwifery has said nurses can “protest and reveal their personal beliefs” on the issue.
“Midwifes are doing abortions,” Spencer explained the protection of the law's conscience. She also provided a link to the Nursing and Midwifery Council website. She then wrote: “My moral beliefs are 1) the fetus is a child and 2) it is wrong to kill a child, so I have no circumstances to oppose abortion (kill a child).”
Midwife's Crisis
A few days later, Spencer was pulled aside from her NHS line manager. Spencer told the email he didn't know what he did to make the treatment worthy of.
“I was uneasy when she raised Facebook comments,” recalls Spencer. “That was the last thing I had hoped for.”
She added:
The quote that really stuck to me was what she said. I feel they need to escalate to the university. ” She said, “I believe there's no need to tell you the comments I'm referring to. You know what you said.”
NHS Fife introduced the issue to the university and conducted a goodness of fit survey. It also stopped Spencer during the probe period, in direct conflict with the recommendations of officers handling the case.
“I felt it brought memories of being bullied and exiled at grammar school,” Spencer told the BBC. “Just three months after training, I felt like I was being told you weren't welcome.”
Unsure what to do, Spencer investigated similar cases. She contacted nurses surveyed in 2020 to boldly relate to the life-promoting student society. The nurse linked her to ADF UK, a Christian legal defense organization. The group chose to represent her.
In a press release, Jeremiah Igunneborg, legal counsel of ADF UK, said:
Sarah's career has been negatively influenced by cultural bias against people with opinions of life. It exists both at her university and at work.
While committing to many diversity policies, it is clear that universities across the country struggle to maintain true diversity of thought in order to punish students who express their ideas peacefully.
The loss's pain
Ultimately, the university cleared up all the accusations to Spencer, feeling “there is no answer.” However, the decision failed to meet the pro-abortion ideologue at both schools and NHS Fife.
According to ADF UK:
Despite being exempt from fraud (Spencer) , a professor at Edinburgh Napier University continues to warn her about her use of social media, referring to Spencer's comments about her pro-life beliefs as “inappropriate.”
Meanwhile, NHS Fife “strongly opposed” the university's findings, but ultimately relented, ADF UK wrote. Spencer then placed him in another equally-employed hospital in Kirk Kaldy. The hospital is being sued by nurses who have been suspended after being forced to share a changing community with transgender doctors.
Requested by mail for comment on Spencer's case, NHS Fife handed the money to the university. But it had a gallbladder to say, “We are committed to fostering a safe, inclusive and respectful workplace where all our employees are valued and supported.”
The university also declined to comment.
“We are pleased to announce that we are a great source of service,” said Lois McLatchie Miller, Scotland spokesman for ADF UK.
It should be considered completely natural and expected that midwives focused on bringing the world to life may have concerns about abortion. For this reason, our laws protect the freedom of conscience of all medical professionals.
Miller noted that the Scottish government is currently reviewing the country's abortion laws, including protection of conscience. “Sarah's experience,” she warned. “An alarm should be raised about the need to reaffirm freedom of conscience across all public health committees,” he warned.
There is no apology
Spencer is pleased to be allowed to resume her training, but she is not yet with NHS Fife. She emailed NHS Fife to admit the error and promised to prevent such future mistakes.
I think apologies are dishonest, so you don't really want them.
But I would like to admit that it is wrong to insist that I will be investigated.
I would like to know what corrective actions they are ready to implement.
However, praying in your own home is unlikely to be a crime if you are too close to an abortion facility.
