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CITIZEN ISSUES ALERT
Focus on the Family
September 22, 1999

This story received the top slot in the Citizens Issues Alert this week.

BORN TO DIE
An Illinois nurse is blowing the whistle on her hospital's practice of delivering babies and letting them die.

Unusual abortion procedure sparks protest

In a case that could have national implications, the Illinois attorney general's office has asked state health officials to investigate a Chicago-area hospital's practice of delivering second-trimester babies deemed "defective" in order to let them die.

The practice first came to light when "Jill," a nurse at Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Ill., claimed to have held one such baby in a warm blanket until it died.

"It's a different world, holding a person to die that you shouldn't be holding to die," said Jill, who asked to be identified only by her first name. "It's watching their chest, seeing if you can still see a heartbeat and looking at their fingers and their hands and they are fully formed."

Jill wrote a letter to hospital administrators in April, outlining her concerns about the practice. She said a manager subsequently told her it was the most compassionate way to abort.

Yet according to Jill, when the hospital's schedules get too busy, even that so-called compassion can be lost.

"The baby goes to the soiled utility room and is left there to die alone," she said.

The Illinois attorney general's office confirmed last week that it has asked health officials to open an inquiry surrounding "pregnancy terminations" at Christ Hospital. A spokesman with the Illinois department of public health said state law prohibited him from speaking about the case.

Sue Reimbold, spokesperson for the hospital, admitted that the procedure is performed there and at other hospitals owned by their parent group, Advocate Health Care.

Reimbold said that babies aborted this way "are very, very sick fetuses that would not be able to sustain life outside the womb." Draft guidelines on "pregnancy termination" dated June 1, 1998, however, propose expanding the practice to include Down syndrome, cystic fibrosis, and even the mother's mental health as suitable reasons.

Reimbold said the hospital still does not have an official policy on the practice, but is working on one.

Keith Scherer, an attorney with the Chicago-based Pro-Life Law Center, said he is exploring various legal responses to the practice, including murder charges.

Scherer added that the situation could be a good test case for dealing with the procedure in other states.

"If hospitals elsewhere are doing what they are here--a reasonable assumption--then we've taken another step down the slippery slope from abortion to infanticide," he said.

TAKE ACTION: Contact the Illinois Department of Health and urge them to aggressively pursue the attorney general's request for an inquiry into the practice of "pregnancy termination" at Christ Hospital: Dr. John Lumpkin, Director; Illinois Department of Public Health; 535 W. Jefferson St.; Springfield, IL 62761; fax: 217-782-3987.

Also, write Advocate Health Care and express your opposition to aborting children--inside and outside the womb. Ask them to stop performing any and all abortion procedures, citing their mission statement's claim that they believe "human beings [are] created in the image of God." Write: Richard R. Risk, President and Chief Executive Officer; Advocate Health Care; 2025 Windsor Dr.; Oak Brook, IL 60523-1586.

You can also contact Daniel Parker, Advocate's public relations vice president, at [email protected], or Karen Schickedanz, director of corporate and internal communications, at [email protected].


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Citizen Issues Alert
Focus on the Family
Colorado Springs, CO 80995

Ben Taylor
Editor

Matt Kaufman, Stuart Shepard, Pete Winn
Contributing Writers

Mark A. Fugleberg
Director

Tom Minnery
Vice President of Public Policy
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