A Matter of Life or Death

[groovedaddy]

(If only the Catholic church had as much zeal in pursuing and removing the pedophiles in its ranks! gd)
St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix announced on Tuesday that it will continue to provide life-saving abortion care to patients even though it means losing its affiliation with the local Roman Catholic Diocese.

This commendable decision by St. Joseph’s and the hospital network that oversees it, Catholic Healthcare West, upholds important legal and moral principles. It also underscores the need to ensure that religiously affiliated hospitals comply with their legal duty to provide emergency reproductive care.

The decision follows a standoff between the hospital and the leader of the Phoenix diocese, Bishop Thomas Olmsted. In November 2009, a 27-year-old mother of four in her third month of pregnancy arrived at St. Joseph’s. She was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension, a serious complication that might well have killed her if she had continued the pregnancy.

The hospital performed an abortion, leading Bishop Olmsted to declare Sister Margaret McBride, a member of the hospital’s ethics committee, “automatically excommunicated” because she had consented to the therapeutic abortion necessary to save the woman’s life.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/opinion/23thu2.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a211

[Drale]

1. What do they actually get from being affiliated with the Church?

[groovedaddy]

2. I'm not sure if they get any kind of funding. But now they can't conduct masses within the hospital

which might scare off some of their more devote customers.

[Demeter]

4. Devout

Devout people devote themselves...

[DCKit]

3. Brave decision, regardless of their funding, and a tough choice.

I'm not in either abortion camp, but this is significant.

[Stuart G]

5. Very courageous decision . K and R.

[Ilsa]

6. The woman they saved had other children to raise.

It was the right thing to do versus letting her die and ruining the lives of her other children. Honestly, it's a "no-brainer."