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.
What is so bad about people with Down's Syndrome? Many of them have close to normal IQs, they tend to be happy people who ask for little. The best advice ever given to me was from a woman co-worker who had a daughter with Downs. She was telling me what a wonderful person she was, that she isn't very intelligent but she works and she is happy with her life. She told me that happiness is the best you can hope for your children to have ---retarded or intelligent --and that it is far better to have a happy but less intelligent child than one who is extremely intelligent but miserable with their lives. Often it's the very high IQ people who commit suicide.
That can't happen here...This is still America, isn't it ?? ??
I just cannot comprehend the thought process(es) that allows a woman to do things like this...to another life, that she alone is the only source (on Earth) of nurturing and protection....
...only then to be praised for her choices of life....
But, if anything happens to the God-forsaken locations that these decendants of Torquemada practice their wares - CNN, along with all of the rest of the Dewey-Trained News Services - hit the airways like a collective gathering of the dogs of Pavlov. To sing the praises of the work done by these 'caring people' that were so maliciously taken before their time.
The taking of a human life, in this matter, is murder !! !!
If the lump of cells inside a woman's body isn't a Baby...then....she isn't pregnant.
Patients recieve "compassionate care" but not the babies.
Singer, Sanger, et al.
Abortiontv.com Click here for a good anti-abortion site. (Does NOT open to graphic pics)
I think they should display graphic pictures. It is our best weapon. We have to educate the 60% of the public who have functioning consciences--the graphic pictures do just that. Once you've seen them then they are engraved in your mind forever, and our opponents hate them. They are immediately enraged when they see these photos because they know there is no defense of the atrocity of abortion.
If a baby is delivered in such a state that it could survive if properly cared and such care was willfully not provided, then a crime has been committd.
This is no different than the ER (tv show) doctor letting a scum bag murderer die in an elevator because the doctor willfully failed activate a procedure which would have saved the scum bag's life.
The nature of the crime in minimally malpractice and maximumly homocide depending up the specific circumstances.
IMHO of course.
Please site the source of that statistic.
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