- Feb 5, 2002
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Nearly two years ago, Live Action News reported that the Sisters of St. Mary (SSM) Catholic hospital chain in St. Louis, Missouri, appeared to be referring some pregnant mothers — particularly those with high-risk pregnancies or fetal anomaly diagnoses — to Hope Clinic for Women, an abortion facility just across the border in Granite City, Illinois.
John Ryan, a regular pro-life sidewalk advocate outside of Hope Clinic, has had several conversations with mothers and fathers approaching the facility who claimed they were referred by hospitals within the SSM chain. He captured many of those conversations on video, which can now be seen in a new documentary available online called “Scandal: The Catholic Culture of Death.”
According to the documentary, “To date John … and the other sidewalk counselors have documented more than two-dozen abortion referrals from Catholic hospitals in the St. Louis area.” This is problematic, because, as the documentary also notes: “Catholic hospitals, if they want to identify themselves as Catholic, are obligated to adhere to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. This document, produced by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, lays out what Catholic hospitals can and cannot do.”
The Ethical and Religious Directives clearly state, “Catholic health care organizations are not permitted to engage in immediate material cooperation in actions that are intrinsically immoral, such as abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, and direct sterilization.”
Ryan, who is a Catholic and a Knight of Columbus, says he has been trying to stop these referrals by bringing them to the attention of various authorities, including SSM itself, the Archbishop of St. Louis, and the Knights of Columbus, who sponsor a developmental center at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, one of the hospitals apparently making the referrals.
Continued below.
www.liveaction.org
John Ryan, a regular pro-life sidewalk advocate outside of Hope Clinic, has had several conversations with mothers and fathers approaching the facility who claimed they were referred by hospitals within the SSM chain. He captured many of those conversations on video, which can now be seen in a new documentary available online called “Scandal: The Catholic Culture of Death.”
According to the documentary, “To date John … and the other sidewalk counselors have documented more than two-dozen abortion referrals from Catholic hospitals in the St. Louis area.” This is problematic, because, as the documentary also notes: “Catholic hospitals, if they want to identify themselves as Catholic, are obligated to adhere to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. This document, produced by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, lays out what Catholic hospitals can and cannot do.”
The Ethical and Religious Directives clearly state, “Catholic health care organizations are not permitted to engage in immediate material cooperation in actions that are intrinsically immoral, such as abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, and direct sterilization.”
Ryan, who is a Catholic and a Knight of Columbus, says he has been trying to stop these referrals by bringing them to the attention of various authorities, including SSM itself, the Archbishop of St. Louis, and the Knights of Columbus, who sponsor a developmental center at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, one of the hospitals apparently making the referrals.
Continued below.
Documentary exposes Catholic hospital system referring patients to Illinois abortion business
Illinois sidewalk advocate John Ryan has gathered evidence in a new documentary online alleging a Catholic hospital system's involvement in abortion.
www.liveaction.org
