NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt University Medical Center said Wednesday that students in the nurse residency program will not be required to participate in abortions.

The school made the statement in an updated information packet to applicants a day after a Christian legal group filed a complaint over a clause in a nursing residency application form.

The Alliance Defense Fund claimed that Vanderbilt is violating a federal law that states recipients of federal funds cannot require someone to perform or assist in abortions if it violates his or her religious beliefs or moral convictions.

In the packet Wednesday, the school said "no health care provider is required to participate in a procedure terminating a pregnancy if such participation would be contrary to the individual's religious beliefs or moral convictions."

The ADF filed the complaint on behalf of an unnamed Mississippi woman applying to the program and objected to the wording in application materials for Vanderbilt's summer 2011 nurse residency program.

The group filed the complaint with the federal Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights.

Originally, according to The Tennessean newspaper, the wording on the application asked applicants for the nursing program's women's health track to sign an acknowledgment stating, "I am aware that I may be providing nursing care for women who are having" procedures including terminations of pregnancy.

The application stated that if the person cannot provide care to women in this event, "we encourage you to apply to a different track of the Nurse Residency Program to explore opportunities that may best fit your skills and career goals."

David French, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, called the original version morally reprehensible. "How can you justify asking any medical provider to participate in something they believe to be the unjustified killing of another human being?"

The ADF is a conservative Christian group whose founders include James Dobson from Focus on the Family.

School officials had said earlier that Vanderbilt has a policy that exempts employees, including nursing residents, from participating in activities because of religious or ethical beliefs or other associated reasons.

Legal experts had said Vanderbilt appears to be on solid ground.

"To the extent that Vanderbilt is correct in saying they don't make anybody participate in abortions, it doesn't look like they violate that law," said University of Tennessee law professor Jeffrey Hirsch, who specializes in labor and employment law.