Vatican orders Arkansas hospital to stop
sterilizations
By DEBORAH HALTER
Special to the National Catholic Reporter
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has instructed
Bishop Andrew J. McDonald of Little Rock, Ark., to withdraw his approval of
sterilizations performed at St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center. The
states largest hospital is operated by St. Vincent Health System, owned
by Denver-based Catholic Health Initiatives.
Scott Mosley, Vice President for Corporate Development for St.
Vincent Health System, said that dismantling the sterilization unit will take
six months. We have a contractual stipulation in our lease agreement that
provides for a 180-day period during which we will dissolve the
arrangement with Arkansas Womens Health Center, he said.
The sterilizations began in June 1998, four months after St.
Vincent purchased Doctors Hospital, a non-religious institution located across
the street. Prior to the purchase, physicians at the hospital had performed
abortions and tubal ligations, procedures in which womens fallopian tubes
are tied or severed to prevent fertilization. After the acquisition of Doctors
Hospital, St. Vincent ordered a halt to abortion services but allowed
sterilizations to continue in a room across the hall from the obstetrics ward.
The room at the new St. Vincent Doctors Hospital was leased by Arkansas
Womens Health Center, which pays rent to St. Vincent along with a set fee
for each sterilization to compensate the hospital for supplies used.
At the time, the sterilization unit was seen as a way of remaining
competitive in a marketplace increasingly controlled by managed care companies
pressuring hospitals to provide such services. But last June, when St. Vincent
was making final arrangements to provide sterilizations, Pope John Paul II told
McDonald and other U.S. bishops visiting in Rome that permitting sterilizations
is a grievous sin and source of scandal to the church.
The Womens Health Center opened the unit in the hospital
July 1 of that year. At the time, McDonalds approval provoked intense
criticism from Catholics across the Little Rock, Ark., diocese who questioned
the apparent compromise of church teaching as well as the double standard it
created. Hospital spokespersons said the action was based on the churchs
principle of cooperation, which allows participation in an act of
wrongdoing in times of duress if that participation is for the
greater good. The source of duress was managed care; the greater good was the
hospitals financial health.
When the sterilization unit opened, Dr. Paul Byrne of Toledo,
Ohio, president of the Catholic Medical Association, said he had never heard of
an arrangement like the one in Arkansas. Since then, other Catholic hospitals
have made similar arrangements for outside agencies to perform sterilizations
in or near Catholic institutions. The current Vatican ruling, however, is
addressed only to St. Vincent.
Were working directly with our physicians and managed
care partners to find ways to get these services to individuals without the
hospitals involvement, Mosley said. Its an issue of
convenience. It means a second procedure at another facility. But were
hopeful that our physicians will continue to use us for deliveries.
National Catholic Reporter, October 15,
1999
|