Abortions Continue at Controversial Hospital in Illinois

By Liz Townsend

Despite a firestorm of controversy, a new policy allows allows abortions to continue at Christ Hospital, the Illinois hospital recently accused of allowing survivors of late-term abortions to die without medical treatment. The labor-induction abortion procedure that led to the babies' live births and subsequent deaths can still be used by the hospital, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The hospital's parent company, Advocate Health Care Network, adopted the policy in mid-October allowing abortions "prior to fetal viability when identifiable factors that significantly threaten the life or health of the mother or of the prospective newborn are adjudged to be present, or in the event of a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest" at two of its eight hospitals.

"This policy is worse than the unofficial policy that they operated under before," Jill Stanek told NRLNews. Stanek is the registered nurse who originally exposed that these abortions were taking place at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois.

"Using the term 'health' leaves the door wide open for more abortions to be done if a mom says she's 'mentally unfit' to take care of a Down syndrome baby, for example," she said.

Courts have consistently defined "health" based on the 1973 Doe v. Bolton abortion decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it refers to "all factors-- physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age--relevant to the well-being of the patient."

The new guidelines do not deal with Stanek's most damaging accusations, that babies with birth defects such as Down syndrome and spina bifida were aborted at Christ Hospital and that babies who survived late-term abortions were wrapped in blankets and left to die without receiving treatment (see NRL News, 10/12/99, p. 4).

According to the Tribune, the policy "does not stop the hospital's use of a controversial labor-induction abortion procedure that sometimes results in fetuses surviving outside the womb for an hour or more."

Officials do not deny that some aborted babies survive. Hospital spokeswoman Sue Reimbold confirmed Stanek's claim that a few babies do survive the 10-20 "medically indicated [labor-induced] terminations" performed each year at Christ Hospital. Reimbold told NRL News that these babies are given "comfort care" instead of "aggressive artificial life support."

Doctors at Christ Hospital told the Tribune they intentionally avoid abortion procedures that use drugs or surgical techniques to kill the baby in the womb, "because doing so would force them to play a more active role in ending a human life."

Stanek learned of the human tragedy behind this "procedure" when she held one tiny abortion survivor, a 22-week-old baby boy who had Down syndrome, for 45 minutes until he died. She asserted that if a family member does not want to hold the baby, a nurse or service worker can volunteer. However if staff members are too busy, the child is placed in the soiled utility room until he or she dies, Stanek insisted.

Stanek first wrote a private letter to hospital executives in April 1999 asking them to stop the abortion practice. She was then called into a meeting with hospital officials, who told her "maybe I'd be better off at a hospital compatible with my beliefs," she said. Stanek decided to alert other religious, pro-life, and political leaders, and then make the issue public.

Christ Hospital and Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge are the only two hospitals in the Advocate Health Care Network that will perform abortions on a regular basis when the policy goes into effect January 1, 2000. However, the guidelines state that the other six Advocate hospitals may perform "pregnancy terminations . . . in the event of a medical emergency, i.e., an immediate threat to the life or health of the mother."

According to the Tribune, Advocate hospitals previously performed about 75 abortions each year, with about 10-20 at Christ and 40 at Lutheran General. Advocate officials told the Tribune that these two hospitals would perform a few more abortions once the policy goes into effect, since they would receive referrals from the other hospitals in the network.

Advocate Health Care also established a "Perinatal Ethics Committee" at Christ and Lutheran General Hospitals that will " review and approve all requests for such pregnancy terminations," according to the policy, which was publicly announced October 13. Lutheran General has had such a committee for several years, Daily Southtown reported, but it will be new to Christ Hospital.

However, even if the abortion does not fit into the policy's stated guidelines, the committee can still make sure the abortion takes place by referring the woman to another facility. The policy states, "All cases determined to be clinically appropriate but which fall outside Advocate Health Care policy and guidelines for pregnancy termination will be referred to a facility outside the system."

Advocate Health Care is sponsored by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ (UCC). Rev. Carol Munro Mosley, a UCC minister and member of the Advocate Board of Directors, told Daily Southtown that the abortion policy "is a balanced decision that took into consideration our communities, our patients and their families, our church sponsoring bodies, and the mission values and philosophy of our organization."

Pro-life state Sen. Patrick O'Malley (R-Palos Park), a member of the Christ Hospital Governing Council since 1995, resigned from the council after the new policy was announced, strongly disagreeing that the community would accept the guidelines. "The abortion policy recently adopted by Advocate and imposed system wide is unacceptable to me personally," O'Malley wrote in his October 21 letter of resignation. "I also believe this policy to be contrary to community standards."

O'Malley told NRL News that the hospital's Governing Council was in the process of developing its own abortion guidelines, but the new Advocate policy is binding on all network hospitals. "We were working within the governing council to come up with a pro- life policy," he said. "I believe that abortions for life of the mother would be the only exception acceptable to the larger community. The Advocate Board of Directors short-circuited the good work that was being done by the council."

O'Malley also said he is concerned that the policy's definition of "medical emergency" includes threats to the "health" of the mother - - especially as applied in two sections involving abortions on minors without notifying parents and the right of health care workers to opt out of abortion procedures. "The health of the mother could mean just about anything," he said.

For example, the guidelines state that the hospitals do not have to notify an "adult family member" of a minor's impending abortion except in a "medical emergency." "Our understanding from a legal point of view is that the current legislature has conveyed certain rights to a minor that we are in no position to take away," Rev. Jim Gibbons, vice president of spiritual care for Advocate, told Daily Southtown.

However, the definition of "medical emergency" stated by Advocate's policy and that of Illinois state law are very different. In an October 28 letter to O'Malley, Illinois General Assembly staff attorney George F. Rishel wrote that the notification law defines an emergency as one requiring "an immediate abortion to avert her death or serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of major bodily function" - - there is no mention of " health" as a consideration.

Likewise, the policy's section on a worker's right to opt out of participating in abortions states that "Advocate associates and physicians" who object to the procedure would be excused "without bias or prejudice unless a patient requires immediate emergency medical care." According to Rishel, however, state law allowing conscientious objection to abortion "applies to participation in any abortion, with no exception for emergencies that may affect the life or health of the mother."

O'Malley said that his resignation from the board has allowed him to speak more publicly in support of the unborn babies threatened by Advocate's abortion policy. "I have been able to do some education," he said. "The public needs to be better informed about what 'health of the mother' means in the abortion context."

Jill Stanek, who still works in the labor and delivery unit of Christ Hospital, continues to speak out about what she saw and experienced there. She said she has been asked to sign a confidentiality agreement that would prohibit her from speaking about the hospital's policies and procedures, but she has refused to do so. "I believe every person is created in the image of God," Stanek said. "I will keep fighting the attitude that it is acceptable to kill some of us because we're not perfect."