Earlier this year, Sister Margaret McBride, a nun and hospital administrator in Phoenix, Arizona, was excommunicated for allowing an abortion to be performed at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, a Catholic hospital. Now, St. Joseph’s has been stripped of its Catholic status.
The patient, a mother of four in her late 20s, was eleven weeks pregnant when she was admitted to St. Joseph’s. She was suffering from severe pulmonary hypertension, and her doctors feared that, if the woman continued with the pregnancy, the illness could be fatal. The woman agreed to the abortion, and Sister McBride, a member of the hospital’s ethics board, approved the procedure.
In a statement defending the Church’s actions, Bishop Thomas Olmsted, of Phoenix’s Roman Catholic Diocese, alluded to other “violations” that have occurred at other hospitals run by Catholic Healthcare West, which owns St. Joseph’s. In particular, Olmsted mentioned hospitals which provided contraception, performed sterilizations, and did abortions when the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest, or due to the physical or mental health of the woman.
The ACLU has asked federal health officials to ensure that pregnant women can receive emergency reproductive care at Catholic hospitals. They are not the only organization to express concern over this issue; as secular-religious hospital mergers have become more prevalent, reproductive rights advocates have become increasingly concerned that patients at these hospitals may not have access to the full range of health care they deserve. MergerWatch has a wealth of information about the threats that women and healthcare providers face in light of these mergers, and is a great resource to learn more about the issue.
As for St. Joseph’s, they have handled these most recent actions with grace and determination. As their hospital president, Linda Hunt, said in a statement after her hospital lost its status:
“[I]f we are presented with a situation in which a pregnancy threatens a woman’s life, our first priority is to save both patients … If that is not possible, we will always save the life we can save, and that is what we did in this case. We continue to stand by that decision. . . . Morally, ethically, and legally we simply cannot stand by and let someone die whose life we might be able to save.”
This post originally appeared on generationroe.blogspot.com.
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Sarah's first book, Generation Roe: Inside the Future of the Pro-Choice Movement, will be out March 2013. For more information, follow her on Twitter @saraherdreich, or check out saraherdreich.com. |
I am glad that St. Joe’s is taking this in stride. It’s not like they’re going to be shut down if they aren’t endorsed by the Catholic Church. Good for them for continuing to stand up for women’s health!
St. Joseph’s hospital has been a pillar in the Phoenix Metro area providing necessary medical care with compassionate excellence. My family has received treatment there over the years and we have always been impressed with the kind, caring staff and doctors. I cannot see where a church can stand in judgment of saving the life of a mother of four children. There is no way that an 11 week old fetus could be viable, but if the gestation would had been allowed to continue the high probability is that there would be four orphans. Also the health of the fetus is at high risk when the mother has a serious illness with a chance that it will either miscarry or die in utero, or be born premature with significant defects. I applaud St. Joseph’s, Sister Margaret McBride,and Linda Hunt for making a difficult choice that may even effect their financial status. I am sure there are plenty of other hospital conglomerates that would be proud and more than willing to accept St. Joseph’s into a merger for the benefit of the community. Catholic Healthcare West should be condemned for their breach of privacy. The Catholic Official who excommunicated Sister McBride should be censured themselves. Who are they to think they can stand in judgment after the fact.Isn’t the well being and life of the mother and her four remaining children of most importance? This was not some fly by night situation. As a nurse with over 34 years of experience I love life, and will always advocate for the patient, as St. Joseph’s did in this matter. God can be the only true and just judge and I am confident that he is on the side of this mother, her doctor, Sister McBride and Linda Hunt.
Well said.
Is the Church’s position that the patient should have died rather than be treated by doctors? The decision was obviously very carefully reviewed by the staff at the hospital.
Do they receive funding from the Catholic Church?
Roxanna, according to an article in Politics Daily, Bishop Olmsted has said that abortion can never be justified. But (http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/12/22/bishop-says-hospital-that-aborted-dying-fetus-to-save-mother-no/). The same piece states that performing an abortion in a case like this one would be not be considered a “direct abortion” and would be in line with accepted Catholic medical directives. It’s an interesting article, and definitely worth a read.
In terms of funding, I’m not sure if either St. Joseph’s or its parent company, Catholic Healthcare West, receive funding from the Church.
Thank you so much for the link, very interesting. Alarming but interesting.