Archives

National Catholic Register
October 17-23, 1999
"Christ Hospital"

In our October 10 issue, the Register reported on the frightening "therapeutic abortion" practice. In one Chicago area hospital, according to a nurse who still works there, the practice goes like this: labor is induced, a child is born, given minimal "comfort care" and then starved or suffocated. Abortion foes have argued for years that infanticide would surely follow abortion, and here - as in the partial-birth abortion procedure - it clearly has.

This scandal should send alarm bells to two groups: first, to the pro-life movement and second, to Catholic hospitals.

Our reporter tells us that the existence of the practice at more than one hospital has been common knowledge in pro-life circles since at least last May, when the nurse first came forward.

But the public at large doesn't know anything about it. Newspapers in Chicago did report the story in late September, but then quickly dropped it. When about 300 participants gathered on October 2 - in pouring rain and 40 degree temperatures - none of the major television networks deemed their discussion of it newsworthy.

Certainly, this has more to do with those who work in the media than anyone else. Surveys report that news professionals are overwhelmingly pro-choice.  They aren't terribly interested in broadcasting news that casts the abortion industry in a bad light. But this should cause pro-lifers to be more, not less, creative in finding ways to make sure the story gets out.

A second group should see a warning here as well: Catholic hospitals. The abortions took place in "Christ Hospital" which is at least nominally associated with two Christian denominations: the United Church of Christ, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. Both these denominations have taken an abortion-friendly stance on life issues recently. But they were not always that way.

Catholic hospitals must carefully avoid the slippery slope that leads from small infractions against teachings on life to horrors like Christ Hospital's. Once the principle of the invincibility of human life is ceded, the consequences of an anti-life ethic quickly follows.

Register correspondent Bob Horwath tells us that the most frightening banner at the protest he covered was not held by a pro-lifer but an advertisement the hospital hung from its own wall. It announced to Oak Lawn residents that Christ Hospital is one of the top 100 hospitals in the country, and is "right in your own backyard."

He said it reminded him that children are being born only to be killed, in Christ Hospital, right in our own backyards.

Media Coverage 
St. George Pro-Life | Parkview Christian Church