Norway’s Supreme Court has granted Dr. Katarzyna Jachimowicz the right not to perform medical procedures that go against her conscience.
Dr. Jachimowicz, a Roman Catholic, had refused to insert IUDs because they can have an abortifacient effect.
From Lifesite:
The Norwegian Supreme Court has made history by upholding a Polish physician’s right not to dispense abortion-inducing devices.
The court set a new precedent for freedom of conscience for doctors in the northern country on October 11 when it decreed that Dr. Katarzyna Jachimowicz had the right to refuse to perform a medical procedure that went against her conscience.
In December 2015, Jachimowicz was fired from her post as a family physician in the municipality of Sauherad for refusing to insert intrauterine devices (IUDs) into female patients. IUDs can act as abortifacients. Jachimowicz, a Roman Catholic, refuses to be part of any procedure that harms any human being, including a pre-born one.
A highly trained professional with more than 20 years of experience, Jachimowicz speaks Polish, Russian, and Norwegian, and reads English. Those skills made her an asset for both Norwegian and immigrant patients. Norway has a shortage of medical professionals, especially outside urban centers, and therefore depends on highly qualified immigrants to help carry the workload. Jachimowicz was born in Poland.
According to an interview Jachimowicz gave LifeSiteNews, when she was hired in 2010, her employer and colleagues understood that she would not destroy early human life.
“Life begins at conception and I [do] not want to take part in destroying it,” she said.
“All present agreed to my conditions, but I did not ask for written confirmation, knowing that an oral agreement is valid as well,” Jachimowicz told LifeSiteNews.
Attorney Håkon Bleken, who represented Jachimowicz before the Supreme Court, stated that the high court’s decision was “a step in the right direction” for all people of faith.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In