From the
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
Plans by three Catholic hospital systems in Wisconsin to deny admitting privileges to doctors who perform abortions would "be in active violation of federal law," Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen's Department of Justice said in a court filing last week. Federal law "provides that hospitals accepting federal funds may not discriminate against a physician because that physician has participated in or refused to participate in abortions," the state Justice Department said in its filing in federal court.
This is an issue because four Wisconsin abortionists are looking for admitting privileges at religious hospitals
to comply with Sonya's Law:
By demonstrating that the privileges are impossible for the doctors to obtain and unnecessary for their work, the clinics' attorneys hope to bolster their argument that the requirement unnecessarily curtails access to abortion in Wisconsin. The attorneys have said that the requirement would force two of the five clinics in the state to close down and end access to abortions north of Madison.
If there's any further need of the insidious nature of federally funded Catholic hospitals, this should be it. Remember, Van Hollen isn't claiming that Catholic hospitals can't deny admitting privileges to abortionists--just that by doing so they would become ineligible for federal funds.
4 comments:
Well, hard as it may be they can go ahead and tell the government to shove their federal funds. That kind of courage and sacrifice might end up being a true rallying call to the timid.
This blog needs a new label: "He who pays the piper picks the tune."
Van Hollen is right. I might argue against using federal funds for any hospital, but no one forced Catholic Hospitals to make a deal with the devil.
HERE, HERE!
I'm not sure if he is right. The first amendment should still trump any legislation here.
It's true that Catholic hospitals never should have taken government money. At the same time, it's now difficult because there is no free market when it comes to health care. Ultimately, I agree with every comment here--that we need to say no to federal money. But we must acknowledge that this requires a fundamental re-ordering of the way health care institutions operate (a good thing of course).
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