'We're extremely hurt and emotional': Catholic teacher fired for using IVF speaks out about trauma over being branded a 'grave immoral sinner'



The married Catholic school teacher who is suing the diocese she works for after they fired her for undergoing IVF treatments has spoken of the emotional distress and trauma she suffered after being called a 'grave, immoral sinner'.



Emily Herx, 32, who worked for the St Vincent de Paul School in Indiana, appeared on the Today show with her husband Brian and her lawyer to speak about what she believes is discrimination from officials at the school.

Mrs Herx - who taught literature and language arts at the school from 2003 until 2011 - already has one child and when she found out she was infertile decided to try IVF to extend her family. She claims she was asked by the school when she would be having more children.

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Speaking out: Brian and Emily Herx appeared on the Today Show with their lawyer to talk about the pain and suffering she has gone through since she got fired Workplace: Mrs Herx has filed a federal lawsuit against St Vincent de Paul school in Indiana for unlawful termination

Speaking to Ann Curry she said: ' It's been a very emotional time for both of us and actually my whole family. We struggled trying to wrap our minds around what's happened here.



'Just because I was such a devoted teacher, and I loved my job so much. I was just trying to expand our family and to have this happen was just -- it was awful.



'The unusual part about this is from day one at my interview, my employer asked me when I was going to start a family and how many kids i was going to have.



'After I got pregnant with my first son, she asked me when I was going to have another child. So she made it a very personal issue from the get-go.'

Her husband Brian told the show: 'We've been extremely hurt by this. She was dedicated to the school and loved the students there, loved what she did there. Now it's been all ripped away from her.'



A ccording to the federal lawsuit filed in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Mrs Herx was well regarded and received high marks when assessed.

Tearful: Brian Herx said things have been devastating for his wife since she loved the school and her students so much

Law suit: Emily Herx, with her husband Brian, who was fired from her teaching job at a Catholic School after she told the principal she was receiving IVF treatments so she could get pregnant

When she told the principal at the time that she needed time off to receive the IVF treatments, he allegedly told her: 'You are in my prayers', and granted her the time off.

But in May last year, when she was going for her second round of fertility treatments and again asked for time off, she was told to report to Msgr John Kuzmich, the pastor of the St Vincent de Paul Catholic Church.

Bishop Kevin Rhodes told Emily: 'In vitro fertilization...is an intrinsic evil, which means that no circumstances can justify it'

According to court documents, it was at that meeting, which Mrs Herx attended with her husband and father, that Msgr Kuzmich called her a 'grave, immoral sinner' and added that if news of her IVF treatments got out it would cause a 'scandal' for the church.

The Catholic church disapproves of fertility treatments because additional embryos that are created to increase the chances of success are then destroyed, which is a violation of Catholic doctrine regarding the sanctity of embryonic life.



Mrs Herx then appealed again to Bishop Kevin Rhodes and assured him that no embryos were destroyed during her treatment.

According to the civil complaint, he said to her: 'The process of in vitro fertilization very frequently involves the deliberate destruction or freezing of human embryos.

'In vitro fertilization...is an intrinsic evil, which means that no circumstances can justify it.'

It is not known whether or not Mrs Herx has been able to conceive through her second batch of IVF.



Emily's lawyer Kathleen DeLaney told ABC that her client was 'terminated only for trying to enlarge her family with husband' and that she was traumatized from the incident.



Christa Dias holds her 11-month-old daughter: Dias was fired from two Catholic schools because she got pregnant by artificial insemination

CATHOLIC CHURCH ON IVF

A human being comes into existence at the moment of fertilization of an oocyte (ovum) by a sperm. The Church teaches that a human being must be respected as a person from the very first instant of his existence as a human being, and therefore, from that same moment, his rights as a person must be recognized.

The Church teaches that from the moral point of view a truly responsible procreation vis-à-vis the unborn child, must be the fruit of marriage. Pope Paul VI has taught that there is an 'inseparable connection, willed by God, and unable to be broken by man on his own initiative, between the two meanings of the conjugal act: the unitive meaning and the procreative meaning'. IVF violates the rights of the child: it deprives him of his filial relationship with his parental origins and can hinder the maturing of his personality.

It objectively deprives conjugal fruitfulness of its unity and integrity, it brings about and manifests a rupture between genetic parenthood, gestational parenthood, and responsibility for upbringing.

This threat to the unity and stability of the family is a source of dissension, disorder, and injustice in the whole of social life.

The Supreme Court recently ruled that the religious institutions are exempt from discrimination laws in hiring clergymen. For example, the Catholic church cannot be sued for failing to hire women priests because it conflicts with fundamental Church doctrine.



Ms DeLaney said: 'The facts in this case are distinguishable. There is no ministerial exception. Mrs Herx didn't have religious training, did not teach religious doctrine.'

Earlier this month, Christa Dias, 32, was given the go ahead to take her diocese to court after they fired her for becoming pregnant by artificial insemination.

Ms Dias was fired by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in 2010 after she told them she was five-and-a-half-months pregnant and needed maternity leave.

They at first tried to fire her simply for being pregnant and single, but realized they would be violating federal and state anti-discrimination laws.

So instead they decided the single mother violated Roman Catholic Church doctrine by using artificial insemination - which is considered a 'gravely immoral act' by the Catholic church.

U.S. District Judge Arthur Spiegel said in his ruling that Dias was a non-Catholic computer teacher with no role in ministering or teaching Catholic doctrine.



An archdiocese spokesman says that parents who pay to send their children to Catholic school expect them to be taught in an environment reflecting Catholic moral teaching and that employee contracts specify they will abide by church teachings.

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