NACN-USA Ethics Committee report March/April/May 2026

The Ethics Committee continues to be vibrant and active. We have reviewed Provision 7 and 8 of the 2025 ANA Code of Ethics during this time period. We have been working on the survey and hope to have it ready to send out in the next couple of weeks.

We also reviewed and then agreed to be signatories on several important issues:

• A public comment to the Commissioner of Food and Drugs of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regarding the off-label use of estrogen in natal males for gender affirmation asking them to consider regulatory action by initiating a thorough safety review of the use of estrogen in males and by issuing a Black Box Warning of the risks associated with such use.
• An amicus brief in support of the reversal of the End of Life Options Act (EOLOA) which Delaware passed for the purpose of allowing a “terminally-ill adult individual, who has decision-making capacity…to request and self-administer medication to end their life in a humane and dignified manner.” The amicus states that all signatories are vehemently opposed to physician assisted suicide as it deprives vulnerable individuals their fundamental right to life.
• A letter to Tamara Johnson in the House of Commons Ottawa Ontario, Canada writing in support of Bill C-218, The Right to Recover Act. If adopted, this Bill would permanently prevent the planned March 17, 2017 expansion of MAiD in Individuals whose sole underlying condition is mental illness.
• A public comment to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in support of President Trump’s executive order against gender ideology and the proposal asking for the removal of the harmful (to children in foster care) requirements issued in the currently vacated Final Rule Designated Placement Requirements Under Titles IV-E and IV-B for LGBTQI+ Children. This public comment seeks to counter these harmful requirements.
• A public comment to Director Moyer of the National Center for Health Statistics in support of the need for additions to the current classification system, ICD-10-CM to address the growing needs of those who regret being subjected to sex-rejecting interventions to address their gender dysphoria. There is evidence that insurance companies are refusing to cover treatments forcing these individuals to pay out of pocket or rely on charity for services to treat and restore their physical and psychosocial health even though they living in physical agony and experiencing mental and psychosocial anguish. This is a serious injustice and sets the stage for healthcare professionals to refuse care to help them. The current ICD-10-Cm fails to account for desistance, detransition, and the distress caused by regret/grief one may suffer post-transition.
• A letter to Lynn Jorgensen Ph.D. Associate Director for Science Policy at the National Institutes for Health (NIH) requesting federal funding of only the ethically induced pluripotential stem cells and adult stem cells (iPSC/ASC), rather than human embryonic system cells (hESC), allowed pursuant to President Obama’s Executive Order 13505 – Removing Barriers to responsible Scientific Research Involving Human System Cells. In January 2026, President trump paused funding for any new hESC line research.
• An Amicus Brief to the Supreme Court of the United States asking the court to grant the petition, resolve the 3-3 circuit court split, and hold that Title VII’s conscience protections mirror the Constitution’s. After months of masking, testing, and distancing, Snohomish Regional Fire and Rescue forced its staff to take the COVID vaccine.Several frontline firefighters objected. Some sought exemptions because the vaccines used “cell lines from abortion[s].” Others sought exemptions to maintain their “connection with God.”. And still others sought exemptions because they believed the vaccine was “a sin.” Although their reasons varied, the result was always the same: Their consciences “prevented” them “from getting vaccinated.” The law shields that decision from public and private coercion. America has long protected conscience rights, even when it comes at great cost to the government, the military, and the economy. Title VII follows that tradition, requiring religious accommodations in all but the most “extreme” and “unjustifiable” cases. Petitioners’ proposed accommodation—masking, testing, and distancing—fell well within Title VII’s ambit. And rejecting that accommodation abandoned the law’s enduring commitment “to religious diversity.”
• A letter to Majority Leader Thune, Speaker Johnson, and Members of Leadership, Asking to extend the moratorium on taxpayer subsidization of the abortion industry. With the conclusion of efforts to provide funding to American’s physical safety, Congress must immediately turn its attention to the fiscal, moral, and conscientious concerns of the American people by addressing the impending expiration of the moratorium on taxpayer subsidization of the abortion industry. The legacy defining moratorium included in the 2025 budget reconciliation bill will expire on July 4, 2026. Extending the moratorium is fiscally responsible because it prevents an increase in the deficit. It also fulfills the longstanding agreement a bipartisan Congress made with the American people in 1976 with the passage of the Hyde Amendment—Americans will not be made complicit in the provision of abortion, whether directly or indirectly. Additionally, it begins to address the $6.9 trillion of economic loss resulting from abortion, as estimated by the Joint Economic Committee in 2019. Planned Parenthood is a prime example of how the abortion industry fills its coffers through taxpayer.

We have been working on the survey and hope to have it ready to send out in the next couple of weeks.

The National Association of Catholic Nurses – USA is grateful for the ongoing work of our Spirituality Committee, now led by our chairperson, Sylvia Suarez–Ponce, MAPS, BS–HCL, RN, CIC. This vital ministry remains focused on strengthening the spiritual foundation that grounds our nursing care.

Please watch for updates.

Thank you to all the student members who applied for this year’s Eula Sforza Scholarship! The National Association of Catholic Nurses – USA is incredibly proud to support the next generation of Catholic nurses. 

We appreciate the time and effort put into your application, and we will be announcing the recipient soon.

Region 9 News

Region 9 and the Spirituality Ad Hoc Committee sponsored the 2026 Spring Book Club, which read St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort’s The Secret of the Rosary, and participants had the option to join the Rosary Confraternity. The book club met in March, April, and May, and sessions were led by Region 9 members Vebs Dominguez, Vicky Pebsworth, and Bonnie Blachly. Father Dismas Sayre, O.P., the Director of the Rosary Center in Portland, Oregon, and Promoter of the Rosary Confraternity of the Western Dominican Province, joined the book club for its kickoff meeting.