A couple of days ago I blogged about how a Bishop in Phoenix has made the decision to strip St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center of its Catholic affiliation because they had performed an abortion to save a life, and if not done, both mother and baby would now be dead. I’m not at all bothered about the lack of that religious affiliation. In fact, I view removing it as a good thing. What truly is disturbing was the attempt by a religious leader who had no medical training of any kind to pressure the hospital into what could be best described as religiously motivated murder … the mother must die because the bishops belief system tells him that an abortion is wrong even when done to save a life.
Looking back now, it is perhaps tempting to think that perhaps this is simply one nutty Bishop, and so it would be unfair to tar the entire catholic church with the same brush … well, I have news for you, resist all such temptation … because its not simply one crazy bishop, its official church policy. As outlined in the Washington Post, the US Bishops committee on doctrine released a clarification that makes this 100% clear. It states …
a pregnant woman is experiencing problems with one or more of her organs, apparently as a result of the added burden of pregnancy. The doctor recommends an abortion to protect the health of the woman… The surgery directly targets the life of the unborn child. It is the surgical instrument in the hands of the doctor that causes the child’s death. The surgery does not directly address the health problem of the woman, for example, by repairing the organ that is malfunctioning… The abortion is the means by which a reduced strain upon the organ or organs is achieved. As the Church has said many times, direct abortion is never permissible because a good end cannot justify an evil means….
So in essence, performing an abortion to save a life is evil, but doing nothing and leaving her to die is the high moral ground!!! This truly worrying for any pregnant mother who goes into a Catholic affiliated hospital, her life is at risk. They do not have your best interests in mind, their crazy beliefs will take priority.
So how do others feel about this? As you might imagine, many are quite rightly concerned … as reported in the press …
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has turned to the federal government in an attempt to force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions …
Bishop Thomas Olmsted of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix took a number of steps in an effort to preclude future breaches of Catholic directives meant to protect the life of both mother and child, including arranging for the excommunication of a nun involved in the controversial decision, as well as directing the hospital to take steps that would ensure its staff is complying with church policy concerning abortion …
In a letter to Donald Berwick, administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), ACLU attorneys applauded the hospital “for doing what is right by standing up for women’s health and complying with federal law,” but argued that the confrontation with the Catholic diocese of Phoenix “never should have happened in the first place, because no hospital — religious or otherwise — should be prohibited from saving women’s lives and from following federal law.”…
the latest letter from the ACLU followed up a complaint in July from the group “asking for a federal investigation of similar problems at Catholic hospitals across the country, including refusals to provide emergency contraception to rape victims or perform abortions on women having miscarriages.”
In the latest letter the ACLU attorneys complained that Bishop Olmsted’s “heavy-handed actions send a chilling message to Catholic hospitals throughout the country, as well as their employees: If hospitals comply with federal law and provide emergency abortion care there will be consequences.” The attorneys went on to declare that the “dioceses cannot be permitted to dictate who lives and who dies in Catholic-owned hospitals.”
But one other key point to note is that this is not about one crazy bishop …
..The editorial derided the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for supporting Bishop Olmsted’s ruling…
The entire Catholic Church is the issue here, they are the ones who need to be confronted and expelled from any medical decisions. When faced with the claim that they have the highest ethics … be skeptical, the facts tell you something quite different.