A former official of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Service said he resigned his position after failing to convince his superiors in the American’s State’s Public Service that a recently admitted prisoner should be granted an abortion.
Journalists said the issue highlighted tensions over health-care access for female prisoners at a time when women represented the fastest-growing part of the incarcerated population.
Hayden Thomas, who served as Disability Coordinator at the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, wrote a scathing resignation letter in which he said it was unlawful and immoral for the Department to deny the woman’s request for an abortion.
“Your ill-thought decision has violated the special trust that the public has placed in our organisation and has brought shame to the very notion of public service,” Mr Thomas wrote in the letter, which was shared with journalists.
“I can no longer in good faith or [conscience] remain a member of this organisation as it is evident that our values, ethics and commitment to both the Constitution and the rule of law are different and presently irreconcilable,” he said.
Shortly after Mr Thomas resigned, a Federal judge issued an emergency order requiring Corrections officials to transport the inmate to a nearby Planned Parenthood clinic for the abortion.
The woman’s lawyers told journalists that she had “received the abortion care she was previously denied”.
A representative from the Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Observers, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Nebraska, said the case underscored the challenges female inmates faced in accessing abortion and other health services.
An ACLU spokesperson said inmates had a constitutional right to health care, but a patchwork of State and local laws often left key decisions about terminating a pregnancy in the hands of Corrections officials.
Lincoln, 17 April 2021
