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STANEK: Catholic hospitals commit - and U.S. Bishops condone - live birth abortion
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
By Jill Stanek (Jill@illinoisleader.com)
http://www.illinoisleader.com/content/img/f19479/loyola.gifOPINION – The news was a real bummer. A reporter named Tom Szyszkiewicz, who writes for the Catholic publications Our Sunday Visitor and the National Catholic Register, was calling to tell me he had discovered two Catholic hospital systems were committing the induced labor abortion procedure - live birth abortion - on handicapped babies.
The bad news warped to bizarre when Szyszkiewicz said these hospitals were waiting until babies were 23 to 26 weeks gestation before aborting them, i.e., until they were of viable age, so they could say these weren’t abortions at all but simply labor inductions and, thus, sanctioned by the Catholic Church.
That’s crazy, I thought. Most hospitals I’m aware of that commit LBA do just the opposite: They make sure to abort babies before 23 weeks - the most recent viability cut-off date according to the American Heart Association and American Academy of Pediatrics - to avoid the ethical and legal dilemmas of deciding whether to resuscitate a baby they just tried to kill.
The Catholic hospitals’ abortion strategy seemed even more risky when taking the **Born Alive Infants Protection Act **into account. It states that live born babies, no matter what their gestational age or circumstances of birth, are “persons.” According to the 14th Amendment, “persons” born in the U.S. are automatic citizens who cannot be “deprive[d]… of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor den[ied[… equal protection of the laws.”
This means live aborted babies can’t be cast aside to die in hospital soiled utility rooms, or drowned in buckets of water, or sealed to suffocate in biohazard bags. They must be medically assessed and cared for just like wanted babies.
Last week I contacted both hospital systems to make sure I wasn’t missing something. I wasn’t.
**Loyola Health System in Chicago, and **Providence Health System **on the west coast and Alaska, both commit live birth abortion.
But they don’t like the word, “abortion.” They call what they do, “early induction of labor.”
**Webster’s Dictionary **defines abortion as, “the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus.”
So now “termination of pregnancy” is called “early induction of labor.” Euphemisms, what would abortion proponents do without them?
Other Catholic hospitals may also be involved. Szyszkiewicz reported in the March 7, 2004, Our Sunday Visitor that Providence is the 10th largest U.S. Catholic health system, and, “spokespersons for the other nine… were either vague about their hospitals’ practices or did not return calls.”
Loyola and Providence say they are acting in accordance with the 2001 U.S. Bishops’ Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services that states, “For proportionate reason, labor may be induced after the fetus is viable.”
STANEK: Catholic hospitals commit - and U.S. Bishops condone - live birth abortion
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
By Jill Stanek (Jill@illinoisleader.com)
http://www.illinoisleader.com/content/img/f19479/loyola.gifOPINION – The news was a real bummer. A reporter named Tom Szyszkiewicz, who writes for the Catholic publications Our Sunday Visitor and the National Catholic Register, was calling to tell me he had discovered two Catholic hospital systems were committing the induced labor abortion procedure - live birth abortion - on handicapped babies.
The bad news warped to bizarre when Szyszkiewicz said these hospitals were waiting until babies were 23 to 26 weeks gestation before aborting them, i.e., until they were of viable age, so they could say these weren’t abortions at all but simply labor inductions and, thus, sanctioned by the Catholic Church.
That’s crazy, I thought. Most hospitals I’m aware of that commit LBA do just the opposite: They make sure to abort babies before 23 weeks - the most recent viability cut-off date according to the American Heart Association and American Academy of Pediatrics - to avoid the ethical and legal dilemmas of deciding whether to resuscitate a baby they just tried to kill.
The Catholic hospitals’ abortion strategy seemed even more risky when taking the **Born Alive Infants Protection Act **into account. It states that live born babies, no matter what their gestational age or circumstances of birth, are “persons.” According to the 14th Amendment, “persons” born in the U.S. are automatic citizens who cannot be “deprive[d]… of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor den[ied[… equal protection of the laws.”
This means live aborted babies can’t be cast aside to die in hospital soiled utility rooms, or drowned in buckets of water, or sealed to suffocate in biohazard bags. They must be medically assessed and cared for just like wanted babies.
Last week I contacted both hospital systems to make sure I wasn’t missing something. I wasn’t.
**Loyola Health System in Chicago, and **Providence Health System **on the west coast and Alaska, both commit live birth abortion.
But they don’t like the word, “abortion.” They call what they do, “early induction of labor.”
**Webster’s Dictionary **defines abortion as, “the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus.”
So now “termination of pregnancy” is called “early induction of labor.” Euphemisms, what would abortion proponents do without them?
Other Catholic hospitals may also be involved. Szyszkiewicz reported in the March 7, 2004, Our Sunday Visitor that Providence is the 10th largest U.S. Catholic health system, and, “spokespersons for the other nine… were either vague about their hospitals’ practices or did not return calls.”
Loyola and Providence say they are acting in accordance with the 2001 U.S. Bishops’ Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services that states, “For proportionate reason, labor may be induced after the fetus is viable.”
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