Health system bans abortions in facilities
Board vote upsets physicians
The board of directors for the Manchester, NH-based Optima Healthcare has adopted a ban on all abortions. Optima was created in 1994 when Catholic Medical Center and Elliot Hospital merged. The only exception to the ban is when an abortion is needed to cure a "serious pathological condition" in the mother, and then only when the operation cannot be postponed until after delivery.
The board's vote in December 1997 followed debate over whether abortions are actually performed at Elliot Hospital. An Elliot employee leaked a surgery schedule to the New Hamp shire Right-to-Life Committee in 1996. The schedule indicated that an abortion procedure was to be performed at Elliot.
Catholic Medical Center representatives on Optima's board suggested the merger wouldn't be completed unless they were assured that abortions are not performed at Elliot.
More than 160 physicians affiliated with the Optima system have asked the board to reconsider the decision, however. Several physicians at Elliot view the ban as undue pressure from outside influences, including the Catholic diocese, and worry that the ban violates the physician-patient relationship.
Emergency contraception measures, including "morning after pills," and other forms of contraception might be threatened in the future, the physicians argue.
In the meantime, the chairman of Optima's board has promised that the board will discuss the reconsideration request.
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