Friday, November 4, 2016

Refused an abortion – must pay a million – Expressen

the Midwife Linda Steen, 41, sued the county after being denied employment because she refused an abortion.

On Friday, the verdict in the Nyköping district court.

She denied damages and shall instead pay over one million dollars to the Sörmland county council.

“I had hoped for a different outcome,” says Linda Steen.

the Midwife Linda Steen searched for in the last year, employment in Sörmlands county council but was refused. The reason she gave was that she because of his religious beliefs could not participate in abortions. The belief that abortion is wrong has Linda Steen had since childhood.

” I have strong memories of when we celebrated united nations day on 24 October in my school. We learned about human rights, and the right to life caused me to flinch. I thought it must be the most fundamental right of all, ” she says.

– since Then, I have always had a christian faith. My parents taught me a lot about respect for human life. The conviction has not been weakened by that I have read about fetal development, as they do in barnmorskeprogrammet. On the contrary, I have gained even greater reverence for human life.

it Is quite logical that one must be able to perform all tasks in order to be able to have a particular job?

– It may sound logical when you say it like that. But I definitely think that it is logical that a midwife, who choose the profession for that of the depths of his heart, wants to protect life, should be forced to participate in abortions. Then the law on abortion is also clear that it is not midwives but a doctor who has the right to perform abortions.

Forced to pay millions of dollars

When Linda Steen was denied employment sued the county council, then she felt it violated her freedom of religion, freedom of conscience and freedom of thought as well as her right to freedom of opinion and freedom of expression, and demanded damages of sek 80,000.

On Friday, the verdict in the Nyköping district court and Linda Steen denied damages. The district court considers that it is a permissible restriction and that the county council has the right to require employees to midwives to participate in abortion.

– It is boring, of course. I had hoped for a different outcome, but it was in the back of your mind during this process that it could be so here, ” she says.



On Friday, the verdict in the Nyköping district court.Photo: Mikael Ringberger

Linda Steen shall also bear the costs of the proceedings and thus pay 1 215 736 sek to Sörmland county council then the district court believes that “there is not sufficient reason to depart from the general rule that the losing party shall reimburse the opposing party to his own costs”.

Linda Steen know not how she should get together so much money.

” I have not this money. You have to go out and try to make any collection. It is already familiar that has heard of and asked how they can help. There have been several such initiatives in the afternoon, ” she says.

Lawyer: violation of the practice

Her lawyer, Jörgen Olsson believe that the district court has assessed the issue of costs in a wrong way.

– In Sweden and in other countries, so we have a long and well-established practice that says what applies in situations where the weaker party has a legitimate right to seek legal redress. Then you should not be prevented from it in solely on the basis of the risk of large litigation costs, ” he says.

Linda Steen has not decided if she will appeal the ruling or not.

– It is well likely, but not decided. We get to sit down, I and my agents, and discuss how we are going to do.

the GT has previously written about another notable case where Ellinor Grimmark from Jönköping were denied the job for the same reason.

Later, the district court held that Grimmark is not entitled to compensation.

” It was the jätteväntat. Then you are disappointed, very disappointed, ” she said then.

Earlier this year granted the labour court (AD) the appeal in the case.

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