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Daily Southtown -- August 28, 1999
"Abortion service providers scarce"
by Cathleen Falsani

"Abortion was legalized 26 years ago, but abortion service providers remain scarce in the south suburbs. 'There isn't anybody in that area,' said Toni Bond, executive director of the Chicago Abortion Fund.

... Some abortion advocates say they are worried that a recent trend toward secular hospitals merging with Catholic networks and systems might further limit the availability of abortion and family planning services.  Between 1990 and 1997, 84 mergers took place between Catholic and non-Catholic hospitals in 31 states, according to a May report by
Catholics for a Free Choice.... In half of these cases, some or all reproductive health care services were eliminated at the secular hospitals.

Earlier this month, Ingalls Hospital in Harvey, a secular institution, announced plans to merge with the Sisters of St. Francis Healthcare System, a health care network of seven hospitals in Illinois and Indiana, including St. James Hospital in Chicago Heights.

While Ingalls does not perform abortions, in vetro fertilization or artificial inseminations, when the merger is complete the hospital will no longer offer voluntary sterilization services, hospital officials said.  'It's a big trend and it's a silent trend,' said the Rev. Larry
Greenfield, an American Baptist minister from Hyde Park and member of the board of directors of the Chicago Area Planned Parenthood.  'The stuff that happens in the courts and in the legislature are very visible occurrences, but the things that are happening at Ingalls and the pressure exerted on Christ (Hospital in Oak Lawn) aren't really public,' Greenfield said.

Abortion opponent Joseph Scheidler, head of Chicago's Pro-Life Action League, has a different take on the lack of abortion services in the Southland.  'The suburbs are usually a little more affluent, and the abortion mills tend to be in poorer, minority communities,' Scheidler said. 'And maybe the fact that more than 50% of the people in the south suburbs are Catholics might have an influence on it.'"

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