The Deacon's Bench
And it’s one of the few hospitals in the country offering to intervene during an abortion.
A Chicago medical center has become one of the nation’s first Roman Catholic hospitals to adopt a practice of halting second-trimester abortions for women who change their minds after the multiday medical procedure has begun.
Working with two anti-abortion groups, Resurrection Medical Center, the largest hospital of one of Chicago’s largest Catholic health care systems, has put in place a practice that when a woman arrives in the emergency room with an activist seeking to stop a second-trimester abortion, she should be treated immediately. Since October, four women have arrived at the hospital seeking to halt their abortions, and three of them had their abortions stopped.
Members of the anti-abortion alliance — made up of the hospital, the Pro-Life Action League and The Women’s Center — tout the practice as a model for all Catholic hospitals. The hospitals have been under the microscope since December, when the bishop of Phoenix stripped one facility of its Catholic affiliation because doctors there terminated a pregnancy to save the life of the mother.
Resurrection’s decision to work with activists to halt abortions, which is unprecedented in the Chicago area, is “part of who we are,” said Sister Donna Marie Wolowicki, Resurrection’s chief executive officer. “Catholic health care is to reach out to people and help them in their need. Of course, it’s vital to be true to the ethics we believe in. Holding life sacred is a big piece of what we believe.”
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