October is Dedicated to The Feast of Our Lady of The Rosary
2026 Awards & Scholarships Committee Update

Published: October 3, 2026

NACN-USA Ethics Committee Report June, July and August for Newsletter Fall 2026

The ethics committee has continued working hard on analyzing the ANA Code of Ethics from a Catholic nurse’s perspective. We have also had the opportunity to be signatories on many of the important issues facing our nation. We have our own NACN-USA and ethics committee member, Marie Hilliard, to thank for including us in these critical initiatives. I think I can confidently speak for all of us on the committee that we have learned a great deal about these issues and the judicial and political processes associated with them.

In other news, I have stepped down as chair of the ethics committee, but will remain as an active member. Vicky Pebsworth has graciously agreed to assume the chair person position. Vicky will do an excellent job as chair. I look forward to continuing working with the awesome women and nurses of this committee, Vicky Pebsworth, Marie Hilliard, Cathy Laugesen and Allison O’Brien. It has been both a pleasure and an honor to work with each of you!

Respectfully submitted by
Judie Boyle

NACN-USA Ethics Committee Legislative and Advocacy Activity for June, July and August 2026

  • A letter was sent to Majority Leader Thune, Speaker Johnson, and Members of Leadership, asking Congress to address the impending expiration of the moratorium on taxpayer subsidization of the abortion industry which is set to expire 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 dollars.
  • We signed onto a letter to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Secretary for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in the Department of Health and Human Services in reference to the following proposed rule: Re: Proposed Rule: CMS, “Medicare Program; FY 2027 Hospice Wage Index and Payment Rate Update and Hospice Quality Reporting Program Requirements,” RIN 0938-AV78, 91 Fed. Reg. 17338, (CMS-1851-P)

Our commentary is related to the section titled, “Request for Information Regarding Medical Aid in Dying (MAID).” Assisted suicide is morally wrong, a violation of the Hippocratic tradition, and is directly counter to the sacred role of healthcare professionals in providing optimal health care. The potential support, even inadvertently, for assisted suicide by the federal government is antithetical to its responsibility to protect all American citizens. 

  • NACN-USA joined numerous colleague agencies in support of Louisiana’s federal lawsuit seeking to strike down the Food and Drug Administration’s 2023 rule that allows the abortifacient mifepristone to be prescribed via telehealth.

 

  • NACN-USA and colleague organizations welcomed the proposal to remove discriminatory DEI provisions for those participating with the federal government in serving the common good through the grant process.
  • NACN-USA joined colleague organizations in advocating, for inclusion in employee health plans, Restorative Reproductive Medicine rather than IVF and other procedures that separate the engendering of human life from the conjugal act. The National Catholic Bioethics Center, the Catholic Medical Association, and the National Association of Catholic Nurses, USA write in response to the Call for Comment on the Proposed Rule, Excepted Fertility Benefits.

We also have good news! 

  • In Canada, the expansion of MAiD for mental illness has been paused indefinitely. 

In total, the committee heard from 44 witnesses and received 32 briefs, many opposed to granting MAID eligibility based solely on mental illness over several core issues, including whether it’s possible to determine with any degree of certainty when psychiatric suffering has become “irremediable,” essentially incurable, and a lack of access to mental health care and supports.

Leaders of Canada’s MAiD assessors and providers said MAiD for mental illness would only be available in rare circumstances and only after careful evaluation.

  • In addition, a lawsuit in Oregon involving a detransitioner suing two of her practitioners for malpractice because they signed off on her obtaining a mastectomy after only one visit, has been settled out of court.
  • Unfortunately, all is not good news. An article on X reported that a Canadian priest was recovering from a hip fracture and was offered MAiD twice!