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National Right to Life News, September 2001
Pro-Life Nurse Fired from Christ Hospital
By Liz Townsend

Two years after publicly exposing alleged live-birth abortion procedures at Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illinois, nurse Jill Stanek was fired from her job August 31.

"The termination was based solely on my taking a stand against abortion," Stanek told NRL News. "It was a wrongful termination."

Stanek has been outspoken in her condemnation of Christ Hospital's abortion policy. The hospital is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ.

Stanek's most shocking accusation is that late-term babies who survive abortion attempts have been left to die without receiving treatment. In these abortions, mothers are given labor-inducing drugs, and the babies are delivered without being killed in utero, according to the Chicago Tribune.  Most of these babies are stillborn, but some survive and live for several minutes to a few hours, Daily Southtown reported.

Stanek alleged that the babies were either held or placed in a soiled utility room until death and received "comfort care" rather than lifesaving medical treatment, according to the Associated Press.

Hospital spokeswoman Sue Reimbold admitted in 1999 that such abortions do occur, but said that the babies who are born alive are fed and placed in the nursery. "They are just not given aggressive artificial life support," Reimbold told NRL News in a 1999 interview.

On July 20, 2000, Stanek testified about live-birth abortions at a hearing on the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act conducted by the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution. This is a proposed federal law, supported by NRLC, that would clearly establish that an infant who is entirely delivered and who shows any signs of life has full legal rights under all federal laws. (See www.nrlc.org, "Federal Legislation: Born-Alive Infants Protection Act.")

At the same hearing, another nurse from Christ Hospital, Allison Baker, testified that on two occasions she had entered the hospital's "soiled utility room" to find live-born aborted babies lying alone and naked on a counter, gasping for breath or showing other signs of life.

This summer Stanek testified again at a second hearing on the bill before the House subcommittee. On June 29, the Senate voted 98-0 to add the bill to an unrelated measure dealing with regulation of HMOs. On August 2, the House also approved the measure as part of its own version of the HMO regulation bill. Now a conference committee must iron out differences between the House and Senate bills on the HMO issues, but if agreement is reached on those issues, then the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act will be part of the final HMO bill.

Stanek has also testified before Illinois House and Senate committees in support of legislation to protect babies born alive after abortions.

Before Stanek raised the issue in 1999, Christ Hospital performed abortions on babies with nonfatal anomalies, such as Down syndrome and spina bifida, according to Daily Southtown. The hospital changed its policy in mid-October 1999 to allow abortions only for "fatal" anomalies, when the babies are not considered to be able to live on their own, the newspaper reported. Stanek told NRL News that abortions are also performed for "life or health of the mother, and rape and incest."

Stanek told NRL News that she knows of four babies - - two boys and two girls - - who were born alive last year after abortions and lived for one-and-a-half to three hours.

One of these babies, a healthy child aborted in the 23rd week of pregnancy for "health of the mother" reasons, was "rocked to death" for two-and-a-half hours, Stanek told NRL News. "No treatment was given, even though the baby began breathing on her own and her Apgar scores were going up," Stanek added.

In her July congressional testimony, Stanek said that the hospital now has a "Comfort Room" where babies who survive abortion attempts stay until death.  She described a "small, nicely decorated room" where parents can take photographs of their dying babies, baptize them, and make footprints for keepsakes. "There is also a wooden rocker to rock these babies to death," Stanek testified.

Stanek was told she was fired August 31 as she arrived for her first 11 p.m. shift after a vacation. "I knew something was happening because whose boss is waiting for them at 11 p.m. on a Friday night?" she told Daily Southtown.

The termination came after a lengthy article on Stanek appeared in Daily Southtown August 19. "I think it was the final straw for the hospital," she told NRL News. Stanek had previously been given official warnings after she made public statements about the hospital's abortion policies.

However, hospital spokesman Mike Maggio told the Chicago Sun-Times that Stanek's views did not lead to the firing. "Her change in employment status was not at all related to any personal beliefs or stands that she takes now or has taken in the past," he said.

Stanek said that she is consulting with her lawyers now and deciding what course of action she will take. She has several speaking engagements scheduled and is committed to continue her fight against abortion and Christ Hospital's alleged policies.

"I feel that the termination was part of God's plan," Stanek said. "I'm a lot more free to speak out now, to get the word out and make people stop and think."

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