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In two days the University of Wisconsin Hospital Authority Board will vote on Madison Surgery Center's highly controversial request to perform second-trimester abortions. The rationale offered for extending the age limits to abort older babies (between 13 and 22 weeks) is the retirement of Dennis Christensen, who provided second-trimester abortions at Madison's Planned Parenthood.

A coalition of pro-life groups rallied at Liberty Mall on Saturday, bringing with them boxes of petitions signed by more than 20,000 people. The petitions were subsequently delivered to Meriter Hospital.

The Madison Surgery Center is jointly managed by the University of Wisconsin (UW) Hospital and Clinics, Meriter Hospital, and the UW Medical Foundation. All are part of the system called UW Health.

According to the Badger Herald newspaper, the center "is governed by the UW Hospitals and Clinics Authority Board, which is composed of members from each of the hospitals along with seven representatives from UW." It is this governing body that is "in charge of, among other things, setting the hospital's policies."

Board Chair David Walsh told the newspaper, "The staff there is proposing they take over some of the responsibilities that were previously held by Planned Parenthood." He added, "I envision that a presentation will be made by those recommending it, and we'll discuss it and make the decision that day."

Last month, Barbara Lyons, executive director of Wisconsin Right to Life, told Today's News & Views that if the proposal goes through, "This would mean that you could go to the center for arthroscopic knee surgery, and maybe in the next room they'd be dismembering an unborn baby."  In addition, she said, " the fees you pay for the surgery would in fact be subsidizing abortions, since the funds will be commingled."

Over the weekend Lyons told the Badger Herald, "Abortions are always a health concern for the mother, and there are mental health concerns for everyone that goes to that surgery center. It's a bad mix."

The consensus appears to be that the vote is very close.