UW Health proposed plan to offer abortions criticized
With no clinics in the Madison area currently administering second trimester abortions, a group of UW Health gynecologists is considering a plan to provide the procedure to patients who seek it.
"The physicians involved believe this is part of a comprehensive plan of care for reproductive health," said UW Health spokeswoman Lisa Brunette. "Right now there is no clinic in the area that provides that type of termination and the physicians involved believe there is a public health responsibility to provide them, so they wish to move forward."
Although no decision has been finalized, the plan is to provide the abortions at the Madison Surgery Center, located at 1 S. Park St. The center is a joint venture of Meriter Hospital, UW Hospital and Clinics, and the UW Medical Foundation -- which is the group of physicians on the faculty at UW-Madison. Any decision to move forward with the plan would first have to be approved by the center's board, which could take action later this month, said Brunette.
The Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian group, sent a letter to UW Hospital and Clinics on Tuesday asking officials to oppose any move to provide second-trimester abortions.
"Many Madison Surgery Center employees believe that turning their workplace into an abortion facility will severely upset regular patients, disrupt the respected surgical practice that currently occurs there, decimate employee morale, require burdensome policy changes, and compel direct or indirect staff participation in the dismemberment of these viable and near-viable pre-born infants," wrote Matthew Bowman, an Alliance Defense Fund lawyer.
But Brunette says that "no resident or employee who has a religious or moral objection will be required to either perform an abortion or provide training for it. They have rights of conscience that will be completely respected."
Wisconsin law, and a new federal administrative rule, in fact, prohibits employers from penalizing health care workers who refuse to "recommend, aid or perform" abortions due to moral objections.
The Alliance Defense Fund also said the plan may violate a state law that prohibits state or federal money from being used to pay doctors or clinics to perform abortions. But Brunette said the abortions would be paid for by insurance and patient fees, and not public funds.
Brunette declined to publicly make available the names of the gynecologists backing the plan to open the abortion clinic, but said the providers would be made available to those seeking an abortion and to referring physicians.
Dr. Dennis Christensen of the Madison Abortion Clinic was previously the only area provider who would perform second tri-mester abortions, and he retired at the end of December. Christensen's clinic now is run by Planned Parenthood and will offer abortion services for those up to 18 weeks pregnant. The UW Health gynecologists would offer abortions for patients between 13 and 22 weeks pregnant.
Brunette said UW Hospital once offered abortion services, but has not done so for more than 20 years.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, a Washington-based health research group, about 90 percent of abortions occur in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. About 8,200 women in Wisconsin obtained abortions in 2007, the lowest total since the state started keeping those figures in 1974.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
File photo
A proposed plan is being criticized in which UW Health would offer second trimester abortions at the clinic at 1 S. Park St.
