Question about surgical technicians?

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Hello,

I am about to start school to be a surgical technologist. I was wondering though if anyone knows if surgical technologists or technicians must be able to assist in abortions? I cannot for religious reasons, would I still be able to get hired? Would I only be able to work in a Catholic hospital or specific specialty (plastic surgery, heart etc) or something? I saw this article Pro-Life Military Veteran Fights Abortion Bias to Graduate As Surgical Tech | LifeNews.com where this student was told she would be unemployable? I was so excited about becoming a cst but now I'm concerned? :( Thank you..

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Hello,

I am about to start school to be a surgical technologist. I was wondering though if anyone knows if surgical technologists or technicians must be able to assist in abortions? I cannot for religious reasons, would I still be able to get hired? Would I only be able to work in a Catholic hospital or specific specialty (plastic surgery, heart etc) or something? I saw this article where this student was told she would be unemployable? I was so excited about becoming a cst but now I'm concerned? :( Thank you..

I don't typically see abortions occurring in hospitals. Occasionally, there's a d&c in cases where the fetus has already ceased to develop and has no heartbeat. There are also cases where a d&c may be preformed for a "failed" abortion (where some fetal tissue remained after an "abortion pill" was taken).

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Hello, I am about to start school to be a surgical technologist. However I came across this article: Pro-Life Military Veteran Fights Abortion Bias to Graduate As Surgical Tech | LifeNews.com and am now concerned. I cannot assist in abortions for religious reasons. Does anyone know if its true I would be "unemployable"? Are OR and OB techs required to assist in abortions? I was so excited to do this for a career and now I'm very concerned :( thank you...

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

Threads have been merged and moved into the Nursing News forum.

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Sorry the above was an accidental double post thingy

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Thank you Sour Lemon for your reply. I definitely am fine assisting if the mother's life is in danger, but other than that I can't. I searched this forum and only found the topic as far as nurses are concerned. One person advised a nurse to just not work in "O.B. or surgery" if she was concerned about it. Well as a surgical tech those are the only areas I could work in. I don't know what to do? I know it'll be hard enough to find a job as a new surgical tech graduate now I don't even know if it'll be possible at all for me? Thank you for any advice..

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I don't know the answer to your question. I guess you could talk with some OR Managers or anyone you know who works in the various hospitals around town where you hope to be employed and find out what the situation is at the hospitals.

Best wishes to you.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
Hello, I am about to start school to be a surgical technologist. However I came across this article: Pro-Life Military Veteran Fights Abortion Bias to Graduate As Surgical Tech | LifeNews.com and am now concerned. I cannot assist in abortions for religious reasons. Does anyone know if its true I would be "unemployable"? Are OR and OB techs required to assist in abortions? I was so excited to do this for a career and now I'm very concerned :( thank you...

LifeNews is not an unbiased resource, so I would take anything they post with a grain of salt. My key reason to suspect? "may be used as a method of abortion" and the fact that they don't identify the procedure. Was she refusing to participate in this procedure regardless of the reason or only if it were an abortion?

Many people work in a field where there can be issues with things against their personal beliefs. It it upon them to work in specialties and facilities that reflect those beliefs. A surgical technologist can simply work in an area where abortions do not happen. My facility has an entire separate hospital for OB/maternity/GYN. Is that to say there may not be issues? No. I was involved in one such issue: an ectopic pregnancy at 12 weeks. The fetus had attached to the outside of the uterus, but as the pregnancy was not viable and the mother was essentially dying, the ectopic pregnancy was surgically removed. Not an elective case in any way shape or form. There was no time, had the nurse on duty refused to participate, to get other staff in and do the case before the mother's death. However, this is completely separate from elective abortions. This fetus never would have survived to the point of birth. What you need to do is some serious self-reflection on what is and is not acceptable to you. Would the scenario I presented above be okay with you since it was not an elective situation and it was either terminate the non-viable ectopic pregnancy or lose the mother? Or is that something you would find impossible to participate in regardless? It's all about defining what you will and won't do and finding a facility with congruent views. Very few inpatient facilities will do elective abortions. They may do D&Es for retained spontaneous abortions (miscarriages) or to deal with the life-threatening event that is an ectopic pregnancy.

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