What This “Healthcare Professional” Said About Karoline Leavitt Has People Terrified to Go to Hospitals

An Ohio-based registered nurse is under intense public scrutiny after posting a video filled with graphic, hateful remarks about White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, wishing her horrific birth injuries and lifelong consequences from them.

And for once, the outrage is completely justified.

When a licensed nurse feels comfortable saying something that vile on camera, people are right to ask an uncomfortable question. Is this the mindset you bring into patient care? If you are willing to speak like that publicly, imagine what you feel comfortable saying privately, behind hospital doors, about patients, coworkers, or families.

Now people are calling for professional consequences, and frankly, they should. Not because of her political opinions, but because she revealed she cannot possibly separate her rage from her job. You are not free from the professional fallout when you show the world conduct that makes people question whether you can be trusted in a role that requires compassion, neutrality, and care for all people.

Imagine if the target of that video had been from a different demographic group. The backlash would have been instant and career-ending. Professional standards should apply evenly, no matter who the target is. Wishing negative outcomes on someone is disgusting. Period.

You cannot preach “do no harm” by day and publicly fantasize about harm by night. Those two things simply do not coexist. At the end of the day, this is about protecting patients and protecting the integrity of the profession. This B has got to go.

I am seven months pregnant with my second child right now, and moments like this make me incredibly grateful that I have the option to give birth at home with a team I trust completely. A team whose politics are a total mystery to me, as they should be. Because when you are at your most vulnerable, you should not be wondering what the person caring for you believes about you, your views, or whether you “deserve” good care.

Stories like this do not make hospitals feel safer. They make people question who is behind the curtain. And that is a problem the medical profession should take very seriously.