Posted on 12/01/2001 6:22:38 PM PST by JMJ333
Nurse Jill Stanek made a shocking discovery when she moved from the cardiac unit to labor and delivery at Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Ill., a Chicago Suburb: The Christian hospital, affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, performed abortions.
Her dismay increased in 1999 when she learned the hospital did an abortion procedure that induces labor early and sometimes results in live births of late-term babies--infants that were left to die, sometimes surviving for as long as an hour.
Stanek has testified twice before congress about the labor-induction abortion used at Christ Hospital and other hospitals too. On Aug. 31, she was fired from her job. The hospital says Stanek's claims are untrue and unsubstantiated, and that patients receive compassionate care.
Our Sunday Visitor [OSV]talked to Stanek about the cruelty of the procedure and legislative efforts to protect infants who survive the procedure.
OSV: Tell us about the experience you had at Christ Hospital with a baby aborted through labor induction.
Jill Stanek: There was a baby with Down's Syndrome who had been aborted, and one of the nurses was carrying him to a soiled utility room. She said she didn't have time to hold him. I told her I wouldn't let the baby die alone. I held the baby for 45 minutes. I thought, this is insane. This can't be happening.
The baby was brought to the room to die. There was no medical intervention. I could see when his heart stopped beating. His skin was thin; I held the baby up to the light to check on the heart.
OSV: What was the policy on abortion at the hospital?
Stanek: Abortion could be used on babies for non-fatal diseases such as Down's Syndrome and Spina Bifida, as well as for the life and health of the mother.
OSV:That was changed after you caused a stir?
Stanek: Yes. You couldn't abort for nonfatal illness, but you can still abort in the event of rape or incest. They had been planning on adopting an abortion policy that would have included babies with cystic fibrosis, HIV, and mild retardation. They pulled back after my experiences at the hospital were reported by newspapers.
OSV:How does the labor-induction work, and why would a hospital choose to adopt such a procedure?
Stanek: You insert a medication into the birth canal that irritates the cervix. The baby is still small, maybe 1 pound to 2 pounds. The baby falls right out of the uterus.
We know babies can feel pain at 20 weeks. How would you like not to be able to breathe?
OSV:What did you do after you had held the dying baby?
Stanek: I decided I had to do something. I prayed. I read Proverbs 24:11-12; "You will rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to die. Don't stand back and let them die. Don't disclaim responsibility." I decided to stay and fight it.
I wrote a letter to the hospital administrators. I believed they didn't know what was going on. They called themselves "Christians". They called a meeting with me and said I might be better off at a hospital that shared my convictions.
I was meeting with my pastor, and he told the hospital that if they didn't change the policy, we would alert anyone who would listen to what they were doing. So, in July 1999, we wrote a letter to 70 pro-life churches and organizations in the Chicago area and nationwide.
OSV:You also eventuall testified before congress. What did you say?
Stanek: I talked about my experience at holding the baby. I was told I could also tell what others had told me. A nurse had told me about a baby they thought that had spina bifida. That's what they thought because of the ultrasound. It turned out it was an incomplete twin in the placenta. They aborted a healthy baby.
I told about how aborted babies were left naked on a weigh scale and metal counter. I talked about how a baby had been wrapped in a towel, and the cleaning lady accidentally put it in the garbage. The baby fell out on the floor when they were looking through it.
OSV:When you look back at your experiences, how do you view it?
Stanek: I look back on it as obedience to God. I wouldn't have had it any other way. I'm 45 years old. I've done enough wrong things in my life to know that even though people might not know you've done something wrong, you feel so bad about yourself if you don't do the right thing. I did it for Christ.
I think the name of the hospital can't be overlooked. God has chosen this hospital. The name of his son has been dishonored.
Funny you say this, as I have always thought on this. Just who are the Normal ones. Downs people are pure love and so very honest. LOL.
But really, I can't get the image of that sweet day-in and day-out big smile out of my mind :-), and I don't want to, either. He definitely has something that many people don't. How dare people judge someone's "quality of life." Every life is precious and created for a purpose. Lives such as those are created to challenge US to a greater love of our fellow human being, and too many are failing that challenge today in our selfish, materialistic society.
With my little grandson, I get to see that big smile everyday. He is just Mr. Precious, and I can't imagine life without him. He lights up any place he goes.
You are very insightful and therefore Blessed.
Thanks again friend, and Bye
"You have to become a bit schizophrenic. In one room, you encourage the patient that the slight irregularity in the fetal heart is not important, that she is going to have a fine, healthy baby. Then, in the next room you assure another woman, on whom you just did a saline abortion, that it is a good thing that the heartbeat is already irregular....she has nothing to worry about, she will NOT have a live baby...All of a sudden one noticed that at the time of the saline infusion there was a lot of activity in the uterus. That's not fluid currents. That's obviously the fetus being distressed by swallowing the concentrated salt solution and kicking violently and that's to all intents and purposes, the death trauma. ..somebody has to do it, and unfortunately we are the executioners in this instance..." --abortionist Dr.Szenes
"And then to see, to be with somebody while they're having the injection when they're twenty or twenty-four weeks, and you see the baby moving around, kicking around, as this needle goes into the stomach, you know." --Susan Lindstrom, M.S.W.
"I look inside the bucket in front of me. There is a small naked person in there, floating in a bloody liquid- plainly the tragic victim of a drowning accident. But hen perhaps this was no accident, because the body is purple with bruises and the face has the agonized tauntness of one forced to die too soon. I have seen this face before, on a Russian soldier lying on a frozen snow-covered hill, stiff with death, and cold." --Pro-choice doctor and author Magda Denes "Performing Abortions" by Magda Denes, M.D. "Commentary" Oct. 26 1976 p 35-37
Also quoted Magda Denes, "[the doctor] pulls out something, which he slaps on the instrument table. "there," he says, "A leg." . . . I turn to Mr. Smith. . . He points to the instrument table, where there is a perfectly formed, slightly bent leg, about three inches long. . . "There, I've got the head out now." ...There lies a head. It is the smallest human head I have ever seen, but it is unmistakably part of a person."
Hope you enjoy your feast, ghoul.
I have to wonder about the mental health of someone who seeks out and publishes this kind of stuff.
Well, you didn't ask me. I will tell you that I personally have butchered lots of poultry, cattle, and hogs, but no sheep.
I would not become a vegetatian.
Are you afraid to look at the "stuff"?
Are YOU?
We are concerned about innocent babies being killed.
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