Catholic Health Center for Women Opens in Manhattan (Gianna Center)

By Genevieve Pollock

NEW YORK, DEC. 8, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Today in New York City, a Catholic health center for women officially opened with a waiting list of patients eager for its particular approach to reproductive care and family planning.

Doctor Anne Mielnik, the director of "Gianna -- The Catholic Health Care Center for Women," explained to ZENIT that her clinic is only one piece of the last pro-life bastion in the city.

The center is owned by St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan, the last of its kind in a city that once numbered 15 Catholic hospitals.

Mielnik stated that the Sisters of Charity, the order in charge of the hospital, invested in the Gianna center, despite the difficult economy, because they saw that the women of New York City have a need that is not being met.

One aspect of this need, the doctor explained, is helping couples with infertility to "conceive in a way that is in line with God's plan." For this reason, she added, today's ribbon-cutting ceremony has special significance on the feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Some "15% of couples will struggle with infertility," Mielnik said, and "in the years that I have done medicine, I don't think I have seen anything that causes more anxiety and more stress."

"It is a tremendous health problem," she added, and "many Catholic couples are not aware of what the Church teaches in terms of what is an acceptable treatment for infertility."

The doctor applauded the U.S. bishops' conference for releasing a new document on the topic of reproductive technologies and Church teaching, titled "Life-Giving Love in an Age of Technology," last month at their annual fall general assembly.

Overwhelmed with regret

Couples are "not aware that alternatives are available, which are completely in line with their faith and highly effective," she stated.

There are so few of these Catholic clinics in the country that infertile couples looking for help often land in the secular clinics where they are "pushed very quickly and often very aggressively to do procedures like in vitro fertilization," she said.

In fact, Mielnik noted that the Gianna center, which is located near Grand Central Station, faces an in vitro fertilization clinic right across the street.

Couples find themselves in an "intensely anxiety provoking" situation, she said, "desperately wanting a child," often without "clear guidance on what is licit."

They enter these clinics and are "pressured to do something that -- as the couples themselves will say clearly -- they know violates their conscience," she noted.

The doctor continued: "Many of them going into a procedure like in vitro fertilization recognize the possibility of creating embryos that are then frozen or destroyed, or the possibility of having to terminate pregnancies if they have multiple embryos implant.

"Yet because they feel like they have no other options they go forward with it, and then are overwhelmed with regret.

"They end up keeping embryos in storage for decades afterward, because they don't want to destroy them; they recognize them as their children."

The Gianna center offers an alternative, she said, that supports the couple in their marriage and also can help them to fulfill the dream of having a child.

Stepping up

The bishops' statement is "phenomenal," Mielnik affirmed, and now the "medical community needs to step up and make sure that the alternative is available" for couples.

Women want to be "faithful to their Catholic values in reproductive health care and family planning," she said, but often they "feel like they have nowhere to go" where they will not be pressured "to do things that they don't believe in."

"We have not started advertising yet," the center director said, but "we already have a waiting list with over 120 people on it." As well, she added, people from Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other areas have been contacting the center without formally put their names on the list.

There is "definitely" a demand, Mielnik said.

The director expressed the opinion that the center will appeal not only to Catholics, but also "more broadly to the infertility population in New York City."

"We have this new alternative for treating infertility called NaPro Technology," she explained, which is "as effective if not more effective than in vitro fertilization."

The doctor continued, "The approach that we use works cooperatively with the woman's fertility system, and we're able to help a couple conceive through a natural act of intercourse, which, just speaking with couples, is what most of them would prefer."

More economical

Additionally, she said, our approach is essentially cheaper. She explained that a single cycle of in vitro fertilization -- which is usually not successful until after multiple rounds -- can cost $10,000 each in out-of-pocket costs.

The director said that the staff at the Gianna center have been working to keep the costs down for patients by selecting treatment options that are covered by most health insurance.

Another service the center provides, Mielnik said, is education for those couples "who don't want to space their children using hormones" and are looking for natural alternatives such as the Creighton Model FertilityCare System, a natural family planning model.

There are many non-Catholic women who are pro-life, she said, including a conservative Jewish population in New York as well as a large Christian group "who would be interested in our general health care because our values are in line with theirs on the issue of the sanctity of human life."

This pro-life health care is what St. Vincent's Hospital is known for. Mielnik stated that she has been working closely with the Sisters of Life in the opening of the center, and they "have said definitively that they look to St. Vincent's as the last pro-life hospital in the city."

They say that there is "nowhere else to turn when they have women in crisis pregnancies or with adverse perinatal diagnoses," she added.

"St. Vincent's is like a last stronghold of pro-life medical ethics in this city," the doctor said, and the Gianna center is now a part of its Manhattan outreach.

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On the Net:

Gianna center: http://www.svcmc.org/body.cfm?id=1831

About St. Gianna Beretta Molla:

Gianna Beretta was born in Magenta (Milan) October 4, 1922. Already as a youth she willingly accepted the gift of faith and the clearly Christian education that she received from her excellent parents. As a result, she experienced life as a marvellous gift from God, had a strong faith in Providence and was convinced of the necessity and effectiveness of prayer.
She diligently dedicated herself to studies during the years of her secondary and university education, while, at the same time, applying her faith through generous apostolic service among the youth of Catholic Action and charitable work among the elderly and needy as a member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. After earning degrees in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Pavia in 1949, she opened a medical clinic in Mesero (near Magenta) in 1950. She specialized in Pediatrics at the University of Milan in 1952 and there after gave special attention to mothers, babies, the elderly and poor.
While working in the field of medicine-which she considered a “mission” and practiced as such-she increased her generous service to Catholic Action, especially among the “very young” and, at the same time, expressed her joie de vivre and love of creation through skiing and mountaineering. Through her prayers and those of others, she reflected upon her vocation, which she also considered a gift from God. Having chosen the vocation of marriage, she embraced it with complete enthusiasm and wholly dedicated herself “to forming a truly Christian family”.
She became engaged to Pietro Molla and was radiant with joy and happiness during the time of their engagement, for which she thanked and praised the Lord. They were married on September 24, 1955, in the Basilica of St. Martin in Magenta, and she became a happy wife. In November 1956, to her great joy, she became the mother of Pierluigi, in December 1957 of Mariolina; in July 1959 of Laura. With simplicity and equilibrium she harmonized the demands of mother, wife, doctor and her passion for life.
In September 1961 towards the end of the second month of pregnancy, she was touched by suffering and the mystery of pain; she had developed a fibroma in her uterus. Before the required surgical operation, and conscious of the risk that her continued pregnancy brought, she pleaded with the surgeon to save the life of the child she was carrying, and entrusted herself to prayer and Providence. The life was saved, for which she thanked the Lord. She spent the seven months remaining until the birth of the child in incomparable strength of spirit and unrelenting dedication to her tasks as mother and doctor. She worried that the baby in her womb might be born in pain, and she asked God to prevent that.
A few days before the child was due, although trusting as always in Providence, she was ready to give her life in order to save that of her child: “If you must decided between me and the child, do not hesitate: choose the child - I insist on it. Save him”. On the morning of April 21, 1962, Gianna Emanuela was born. Despite all efforts and treatments to save both of them, on the morning of April 28, amid unspeakable pain and after repeated exclamations of “Jesus, I love you. Jesus, I love you», the mother died. She was 39 years old. Her funeral was an occasion of profound grief, faith and prayer. The Servant of God lies in the cemetery of Mesero (4 km from Magenta).

“Conscious immolation», was the phrase used by Pope Paul VI to define the act of Blessed Gianna, remembering her at the Sunday Angelus of September 23, 1973, as: “A young mother from the diocese of Milan, who, to give life to her daughter, sacrificed her own, with conscious immolation”. The Holy Father in these words clearly refers to Christ on Calvary and in the Eucharist.
Gianna was beatified by Pope John Paul II on April 24, 1994, during the international Year of the Family.

St Gianna, pray for us

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