Kill or be Fired?

Yes, it could happen to you.

Brian Festa, Esq. Contributor

Most of us can’t imagine a scenario in which our employer threatens to fire us if we don’t kill another person, or provide someone with the weapon that we knew would be used to kill another person. But for doctors, nurses, and other healthcare practitioners all across the country, that is actually a distinct possibility. Every day, healthcare professionals working in hospitals and clinics are asked to participate in abortions, while in pharmacies they are asked to prescribe or distribute abortion-inducing drugs known as abortifacients. While federal and state laws exist that allow health care workers to refuse to participate in abortions, it should come as no surprise to you that not all hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies strictly adhere to the law. After all, the U.S. Constitution prohibits any government official or agency from infringing on our free exercise of religion, but that didn’t stop government agencies all across the country from firing people who refused covid vaccine mandates based on their religious objections. And in California, New York, Connecticut, and Maine, children cannot receive a public education if they have not received even one of the many vaccinations required for school attendance, even if their parents assert a sincere religious objection.

So it should not be so hard to believe that a healthcare worker can be disciplined or fired for refusing to participate in an abortion. And participation can come in many forms. Apart from actually performing or assisting in the abortion procedure, they could be asked to prepare the room in which the atrocity will occur, or clean the instrumentsthat will be used in the slaughter of an innocent child. And even in settings where abortions are not performed, employees can be asked to directly or indirectly facilitate abortions.

That’s what reportedly happened to Paige Casey, a nurse practitioner working in a CVS “Minute Clinic” in northern Virginia. Casey, a Catholic, alleged she was fired by CVS after she refused to prescribe contraceptives and abortion-inducing medications to her patients, due to her sincere religious objection to abortion. CVS had previously granted Casey’s request for a religious accommodation, but rescinded that approval after the company changed its policy. Casey sued CVS Health in September 2022, seeking over
$100,000 in damages. The case was settled out of court in October 2023, according to online court records.

Sometimes, healthcare professionals are even deceived into participating in an abortion. Take for example the case of a University of Vermont nurse, who in 2019 said she was told by her supervisor that she would be assisting with the treatment of a patient who had suffered a miscarriage, when in fact it was an abortion procedure. The hospital was hit with a violation notice from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a result of this incident. But some, like former interim president and CEO of National Abortion Federation Katherine Ragsdale, believe that healthcare workers who refuse to perform abortions should consider other forms of employment:

“We respect, within reasonable limits, individuals’ rights to act in accordance with their consciences,” Ragsdale said in a statement reported by Courthouse News. “Those health care workers whose consciences do not allow them to provide compassionate care or to perform the duties their patients require and their employers assign should feel free, and encouraged, to find other work.”

I couldn’t disagree more. The people who respect and defend life from conception to natural death are precisely the people who I’d trust most with my health care. I don’t want anyone who regards life as something that can be discarded anywhere near my hospital bed. And in any event, an employee’s religious objection to abortion is unquestionably protected by federal law like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits religious discrimination in the workplace, and requires employers to provide employees with reasonable accommodations for religious objections. In the case of public hospitals and clinics, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution also protects the religious liberty of health care workers. State laws also ban religious discrimination in employment.

That’s why We The Patriots USA, the public interest law firm I co-founded, recently launched an initiative to defend healthcare workers who have been disciplined or fired for refusing to participate in an abortion. We are now actively seeking plaintiffs for federal lawsuits we plan to file on behalf of these brave individuals. I recently sat down with Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life to discuss this initiative, and you can watch the full interview here.

If you or anyone you know is a healthcare worker who has been disciplined or fired for refusing to participate in an abortion, please email us at info@wethepatriotsusa.org. If we take your case, all legal services will be provided entirely free of charge, since we are a nonprofit organization that relies exclusively on public donations for funding. To that end, even if you aren’t able to refer any potential clients to us, you can support our legal efforts in defense of life and religious liberty by making a gift to our 2025 Year-End Giving Campaign today. Gifts to We The Patriots USA are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. tax law.

Brian Festa is a Civil Rights Attorney who, along with his business partner and friend Dawn Jolly, founded We The Patriots USA to preserve and reclaim our God-given inalienable rights. He is a father of two who first became involved in health freedom activism and legal work several years ago, after his son was seriously injured by a vaccine, resulting in lifelong disabilities. Aside from managing the extensive litigation caseload of We The Patriots USA, Brian travels throughout the nation to speak about the work of We The Patriots USA and what every American can do to protect our Constitutional rights. Brian has also been a guest on dozens of broadcasts, including The Glenn Beck Program, The Charlie Kirk Show, The Steve Deace Show, Conservative Review with Daniel Horowitz, The Absolute Truth with Emerald Robinson, Steve Bannon’s War Room, Infowars with Alex Jones, and The Health Ranger Report with Mike Adams.