From: <CEvans1950@aol.com>
Hello,
Here's another case where an individual expects everyone to cater to her
voodoo-like taboos.
What a sad case... she has let her madness rule her life and now she
thinks that she is being wronged when those irrational taboos make
it impossible for her to do the job she volunteered for.
She should be seeking treatment for a mental defect, not suing the target
of her illness.
How insane must you be when you insist on assisting in the overpopulation
and eventual death of this planet? Suicidal/homicidal impulses are often
considered a symptom of mental illness.... whether that wished-for death
is a slow one or fast... and this sad loon has let an insane taboo rule
her life in a manner that will guarantee the slow death of everyone and
everything on this planet.
Sincerely,
Pa. Clinic Fires Catholic Nurse
By KRISTEN HAYS
PITTSBURGH (AP) - A Catholic nurse won't hand out birth control pills or
condoms to single men and women anymore, but she wants her job back at a
health clinic that calls contraception its No. 1 priority.
Family Health Services of Erie and Crawford County fired Laura Merriott
after the nurse announced that she wanted no part in giving out
contraception because she had re-examined her Roman Catholic faith, which
denounces birth control.
Now Merriott, who lives in Erie, has filed a federal lawsuit saying she was
fired "solely because of her sincerely held religious beliefs."
The clinic's directors said they could not reassign Merriott because most
of the clinic's services include distributing contraception. About 85
percent of the clinic's patients are single.
Merriott was hired as a part-time nurse practitioner in February 1994. Her
duties included conducting gynecological examinations and prenatal exams;
screening for sexually transmitted diseases; and dispensing birth control
pills and condoms.
She signed a copy of that job description when she was hired and voiced no
concerns about her intended duties, court documents said.
Merriott, a retired U.S. Air Force major, testified in a deposition that she
had been an obstetrics and gynecology nurse practitioner in the military for
nearly 20 years before working at the clinic. She did not return calls made
this week seeking comment.
In June 1994, she and her husband, practicing Catholics who hoped to
re-examine their faith, participated in a Catholic program for people who
convert to Catholicism, said her lawyer, James Coster.
The objection "wasn't something they just came up with," he
said. "They kind of got recommitted to their faith."
Three months later, she told her supervisor that her religious beliefs
prohibited her from giving contraceptives to single patients.
Sister Mary Jean Flaherty, dean of the School of Nursing at Catholic
University of America in Washington, D.C., said Merriott is in step with
the school's teachings.
"Our students have to have knowledge about contraceptives. We do not
permit them to practice in a clinic or a setting where they're actually
working with unmarried patients with contraception," Flaherty said.
Merriott said she would carry out other job duties, but clinic officials
said that wasn't practical. State and federal regulations also bar her
from choosing which clients to work with based on their marital status,
officials said.
AP-NY-07-01-98 0506EDT
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 06:36:05 EDT
Caroline
.c The Associated Press