If you have ever wondered what difference one person can make, consider Mary Bauer. At 48, she changed careers, got a degree in nursing and accepted a position in the labor and delivery unit at a Chicago hospital. But it’s what happened on her first day of work -- and her reaction to it -- that really set Bauer apart.
Fresh from orientation and looking forward to her new job, Bauer was told she would be assisting in the abortion of a 22-week-old preborn baby with Down syndrome.
"I just told them, ‘I can’t take that patient. I’m very pro-life. I cannot participate in any way, shape or form. I just can’t do it, so I need an alternate assignment," Bauer said.
She went home that night, unsure of whether she would keep her job, and did two things. First, she requested prayer from friends; and second, she began researching Illinois law. Bauer said she found two statutes that protect the right of a health-care worker to object on moral grounds.
She went back to work and told her co-workers that they had the right to say no.
"They never knew they had a choice," Bauer told Family News in Focus, "and they said, ‘We’ve never had a choice. We always thought this was part of our job and we had to do it.' "
Part of her prayer was answered. The hospital adopted a policy to protect workers from being forced to take part in morally objectionable tasks. But Chuck Donovan, executive vice president of the Family Research Council, said not everyone has such a happy ending.
"I would be fearful that many health-care professionals suffer in silence and fear that there will be no one to come to their aid," he said. "I would hope that that would not be the conclusion, but we have much work to do."
He’s hopeful that even in the upcoming liberal Congress there will be movement on the Abortion Nondiscrimination Act.
Though the Down-syndrome baby was eventually aborted, Mary Bauer hopes that through the prayers of faithful friends around the world, abortion will one day cease.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Pro-Life 101, by Scott Klusendorf is a powerful booklet which will teach you how to discuss the issue of abortion intelligently, compassionately and confidently.
