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October 23, 1999
Daily Southtown
"Hospital board in uproar
Member resigns at Christ over abortion issue"

By Cathleen Falsani
Health Writer

In objection to Christ Hospital's new policy on abortion, state Sen. Patrick O'Malley (R-Palos Park) has resigned from the hospital's governing council.O'Malley finds the abortion policy, which was announced earlier this month by the Oak Lawn hospital's parent company, Advocate Health Care, personally unacceptable and "contrary to community standards."

The state senator's resignation, which he tendered Thursday, is the latest turn in a monthslong controversy over abortions performed at Christ Hospital. Abortion opponents have had several prayer vigils and protests at the hospital since August, demanding that the hospital cease all abortions.

Particularly irksome to abortion opponents was the hospital's practice of occasionally performing abortions for fetuses with abnormalities such as Down syndrome and spina bifida.

The abortion policy now limits the kind of abortions available at Christ and the seven other Advocate hospitals, including South Suburban in Hazel Crest and Trinity on Chicago's Southeast Side.

Abortions of fetuses with abnormalities such as Down syndrome and spina bifida will no longer be performed at any Advocate hospital. And what Advocate calls "medically indicated pregnancy terminations," commonly called "therapeutic abortions," will be confined to Christ and Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge.

The two hospitals will only provide abortions in cases of rape or incest, or in situations where there is serious threat to the life and health of the mother or when there are lethal fetal anomalies incompatible with life outside the womb.

No Advocate hospital offers elective abortion or abortion on demand.

This is the first official abortion policy for both Advocate and the hospital.

An outspoken opponent of abortion, O'Malley said his decision to leave the hospital's governing board on which he has served since 1995 was both political and personal.

"I am a pro-life legislator and I am well known to be so," O'Malley said Friday. "I am a father of two and a grandfather of one. One of my children is severely disabled and severely disabled because of something that happened when she was six months old.

"She is 24 today and lives with us. Through her more than anything else I have come to understand ... that we as a society cannot place a price on humanity. I have a deep-seated conviction about the quality of life," he said.

O'Malley said he did not know abortions were performed at Christ Hospital until a delivery room nurse brought it to the public's attention earlier this year.

O'Malley resigned after a Thursday meeting of the governing council at which the new policy was officially presented to the council for the first time, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The senator was the only elected official on the board, which is composed of more than a dozen community leaders, physicians and clergy, and makes policy decisions for the hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said.

In his letter of resignation, O'Malley said he was particularly troubled by two portions of the abortion policy, which "threaten the employment of those who refuse, due to personal conviction, to participate in any abortion procedure," and allow abortions for minors without parental consent.

Hospital officials said O'Malley is confused about the rights of employees to refuse participation in abortion procedures, adding that anyone who refuse to participate in an abortion procedure is entitled to do so without consequences.

O'Malley says the Advocate policy, which the network has refused to release to the media, contains exceptions that allow for a hospital employee to be disciplined for refusing to participate in a procedure.

The Rev. Jim Gibbons, vice-president of spiritual care for Advocate, said the exception in the abortion policy refers to emergency situations, where there are no other medical personnel to intercede.

"As I understand the policy and the law ... there is only one exception," that would not allow any medical personnel to not participate in a procedure for reasons of conscience, Gibbons said. "And that is in an emergency situation where the law obliges you to render aid."

"That would have no bearing at Christ Hospital," he said, "because we are staffed in such a way that would never allow that situation to arise."

As for abortions for minors without parental consent, the Advocate policy complies with current state law, which entitles minors to secure a court order to have an abortion as long as a parent or guardian is notified within 48 hours, hospital officials said.

"Our understanding from a legal point of view is that the current Legislature has conveyed certain rights to a minor that we are in no position to take away," Gibbons said.

"That's not my issue, whether they are complying with state law," O'Malley responded. "My point is that the community expects to know what kind of procedures are being performed on their children."

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