Illinois columnist claims Catholic hospitals performing late term abortions

Sep 14, 2004 / 22:00 pm

Two Catholic hospital systems, Loyola Health System in Chicago, and Providence Health System on the west coast and Alaska, commit late term abortions on handicapped babies, by the procedure of induced labor, claimed Jill Stanek of the Illinois Leader, in her September 14 column.

Stanek, tipped by reporter Tom Szyszkiewicz of Our Sunday Visitor and the National Catholic Register, suggested the likelihood that the 10 largest Catholic health systems in the U.S. – Providence is the tenth largest – are doing the same.

According to Szyszkiewicz, writes Stanek, the hospitals perform live birth abortions; they wait “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.”

Stanek writes that “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… They must be medically assessed and cared for just like wanted babies,” she explains.

In their defense, “Loyola and Providence Health Systems 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.”

According to Szyszkiewicz, theologian James LaGrye from the U.S. Bishops’s doctrinal office stated that “the mental health of the mother ‘is a [proportionate] reason to perform early induction,” and Fr. Jack O’Callahan, staff ethicist at Loyola, said in addition that the procedure is being used “to ward off the physical complications of bringing to term a child who is not going to live anyway.”

Read Jill Stanek’s full column at: http://www.illinoisleader.com/columnists/columnistsview.asp?c=19479

Related columns written by Thomas A. Szyszkiewicz:

National Catholic Register:
http://www.ncregister.com/Register_News/101903_3.htm
Our Sunday Visitor - OSV:
http://www.osv.com/periodicals/show-article.asp?pid=926