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Daily Southtown
Sunday, October 3, 1999
'Therapeutic abortions' protested
Vigil held outside Christ
By Gene O'Shea and Cathleen Falsani
Staff Writer

More than 200 people gathered in a cold, steady rain Saturday morning outside Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn at a prayer vigil protesting the hospital's decision to perform controversial "therapeutic abortions."

Parishioners from several Southland churches, including Christ the King Catholic Church in Chicago's Beverly community, Green Oak Reformed Church in Oak Lawn and Tinley Park Christian Church gathered in the hospital parking lot for about 45 minutes to quietly pray and sing hymns.

Members of the prayer group made it clear that a group of anti-abortion protesters from a Milwaukee-based group who stood along 95th Street holding large photographs of aborted fetuses were not part of the vigil.

Among those seeking to persuade the hospital to stop performing the procedure through prayer was state Sen. Patrick O'Malley (R-Palos Park).

"We as a nation and as individuals are measured throughout the world and in our communities by how we treat those least able to care for themselves," O'Malley told a reporter. "We're not in the position to play God."

O'Malley said he found it particularly disturbing that the procedure generates a death certificate but not a birth certificate.

"This procedure is a new wrinkle in this whole controversy," he said. "Perhaps it's really not an abortion but something more insidious."

At issue is an abortion procedure the hospital describes as "medically indicated pregnancy terminations." The abortions are carried out when "the patient and her physician have determined that complex and critical maternal or fetal conditions threaten the life or health of the mother or developing fetus," according to a hospital statement.

Opponents of the procedure claim it is used to terminate pregnancies of Down syndrome fetuses or other fetuses determined to have other abnormalities.

The procedure is performed on women between their 16th and 23rd week of pregnancy by dilating the cervix and inducing premature labor. Most fetuses are not delivered alive. Sometimes the procedure results in a live birth, Reimbold said.

On those occasions, the baby is held and "comforted" until it dies, hospital spokeswoman Sue Reimbold said in August when the Daily Southtown first reported the controversy at Christ.

Most fetuses delivered before the 24th week are not considered viable, or able to live outside the womb. Much depends on the fetus's weight. If the fetus weighs less than 500 grams (about 1 pound 2 ounces) it is not considered viable, according to medical experts and the standard medical school text "Obstetrics and Gynecology" and David Danforth, M.D.

In response to complaints from abortion opponents, representatives from the Illinois Department of Public Health visited Christ Hospital two weeks ago to review procedures in the hospital's labor and delivery department.

The state inspection came amid the months-long controversy surrounding the abortion procedure. The hospital performs 10 to 20 such abortions each year.

Two state health department investigators spent several hours at Christ. During a conference at the end of the inspection the health department envoys told hospital officials the procedures were in compliance with state regulations, Reimbold said.

A state health department spokesman said longstanding gag rules prevent the department from commenting on whether an investigation is ongoing.

Jill Stanek, a nurse in Christ's labor and delivery department since 1995, brought the hospital's abortion procedures to the attention of local abortion foes.

In a April 23 letter to Christ officials, Stanek, a staunch abortion opponent, related her concerns about abortions performed at the hospital.

"I have personally witnessed two babies who have been aborted alive," Stanek wrote. "Once, I held the aborted baby in a warm blanket for the 45 minutes it took for him to die.

"Can you imagine the revulsion of this?" she wrote.

The hospital does not keep statistics about live births resulting from the procedure, but the scenario Stanek described would reflect the hospital's position of providing "compassionate care," Reimbold said.

Christ does not perform elective abortions or abortions on demand for unwanted pregnancies, she said.

Neither Christ Hospital nor its governing body, the Advocate Health Care network, has an official policy on abortion.

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