A nurse at a Veterans Affairs Department medical center in Temple, Texas, is suing the agency to opt out of providing abortion services to patients, in part due to her Christian faith and troubled memories of her own abortions.
“I’m a person who has had abortions in the past and was before I came to the Lord and was before I had the relationship that I have with him now,” VA nurse Stephanie Carter told the Washington Examiner, revealing for the first time to the public her history of having six abortions, four due to rapes, in her 57-year life.
“And I thought abortions were OK, and I didn’t even give it a thought, really,” Carter said while holding back tears, adding that before she found her faith, “it was used as birth control.”
TEXAS VETERANS AFFAIRS SUED BY NURSE OVER COMPELLED ABORTION SERVICES
Carter, who is also an Army veteran and has worked for 23 years at her facility, is seeking an injunction to block the agency from compelling her and other colleagues to participate in providing any and all abortion-related services.
Her lawsuit is headed by the legal group First Liberty Institute and was filed in the Western District of Texas in opposition to the Biden administration’s move to allow VA hospitals to perform abortions in states that have outlawed the procedure. The department in September began to allow VA facilities across the nation to provide abortion in limited cases in response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade last summer.
Carter also contends that because Texas has some of the strictest anti-abortion regulations at all stages of pregnancy, she risks running into trouble if she aids in facilitating such procedures.
“I don’t want to do any abortions at all. I don’t want to prescribe or any of that. It goes against everything that I believe. So I can’t do it,” she added.
Attorney Danielle Runyan told the Washington Examiner that the First Liberty Institute believes the agency rule is “not valid” and “illegal,” noting Carter’s lawsuit cites the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which “ensures that interests in religious freedom are protected.”
“Ms. Carter has demonstrated that she has sincerely held religious beliefs that are being substantially burdened by this rule being enforced at the Temple, Texas, facility. The government has to have a compelling interest for enforcing the rule, which it does not because the rule was implemented illegally,” Runyan said.
While Carter’s lawsuit is backed by 18 Republican state attorneys general, including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, VA Secretary Denis McDonough has come out in full opposition against her suit.
“From the moment VA announced this new rule, Secretary McDonough has made clear to all employees that their religious beliefs are protected here at VA,” a spokesperson for VA said last month. “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.”
But when asked whether any accommodations were made for Carter, who became a Christian in 1997, Runyan said the Temple VA “did not have an accommodation process for her to engage in any sort of a discussion with her supervisors.”
Carter said she asked for accommodations from her supervisors on two separate occasions but said she was informed “that I had to wait.”
“And my fear was that the longer I waited, the more it gave them time to actually start the process of doing abortions, and I’m not covered,” Carter added.
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who was instrumental in the fight against Roe last summer when justices upheld her state’s 15-week ban on abortion, has also sought to dismantle the Biden administration’s VA rule.
“In direct contravention of the Supreme Court’s opinion in Dobbs, President Biden has taken abortion policy away from state legislators, Congress, and, most importantly, the people and given it to political appointees in his own administration,” Fitch wrote in an amicus brief. “The Dobbs decision was about the rule of law. This VA rule is precisely the opposite.”
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Runyan said her legal team filed a reply brief in the case on Jan. 24 as they await to hear whether U.S. District Judge Alan Albright, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, wants to have a hearing. She added that an answer to Carter’s complaint is due toward the end of February.
The Washington Examiner contacted the Veterans Affairs Department and the facility in Temple for response.
