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Anti-abortion lawsuit against V.A. should fail

In Texas, abortions are still available in V.A. facilities, because the state can’t regulate a federal entity, so a V.A. employee has filed a lawsuit seeking to shut down abortions at those facilities.

The lawsuit is being brought by First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit Christian conservative legal group, and they undoubtedly recruited the nominal plaintiff. That’s a game lawyers pursuing an agenda or large fees routinely play (see, e.g., shareholder lawsuits against corporations).

The employee, Stephanie Carter, a nurse practitioner who’s worked at the V.A. for 23 years, alleges she can’t “work in a facility that performs abortion services for reasons other than to save the life of the mother because … unborn babies are created in the image of God and should be protected.”

She should lose. A court ruling in her favor would impose her religious beliefs on every patient of the facility. That violates their religious freedom rights. And one individual should not be allowed to dictate the services available to every user of the facility. Whether she likes it or not, most abortions are legitimate health care.

Carter has more options, and better ones, than the patients she would deprive of that care. She can ask for other duties, and the V.A. is accommodating such requests. Or if she doesn’t want to be on a campus where abortions are performed, she can request transfer to another facility where they aren’t, or she can work for a different employer that doesn’t provide abortions; there are plenty of job openings in her field.

The reality is that First Liberty Institute is the real plaintiff, and they’re using her to pursue their own political agenda; and however sincere her personal beliefs, she’s only a pawn in the game they’re playing. They don’t want anyone, not even veterans, to get abortions; that’s what this is about. Ms. Carter doesn’t need to be accommodated for that reason. A lesser accommodation will serve her personal needs.

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