A hospital in Chicago has teamed up with pro-life activists to offer a service that few other hospitals offer: the halting second-trimester abortions.
Resurrection Medical Center, the largest hospital in one of Chicago’s largest Catholic health care system, will immediately treat women seeking to reverse their second trimester abortion. A second-trimester dilation-and-extraction abortion can take two to three days to perform.
An estimated 11% of the nation’s abortions are done with this method, in which the cervix is dilated on the first day, and the unborn baby is vacuumed out on the second or third day. Resurrection seeks to help women on the first day, or second day if still possible, to remove the dilator and allow the cervix to close naturally.
Four women have visited Resurrection since October, seeking to halt their abortions, and three of them were able to do so successfully.
Resurrection has developed this practice with the help of pro-life groups, including the Pro-Life Action League and The Women’s Center.
Sister Donna Marie Wolowicki, Resurrection’s chief executive, said that the practice is “part of who we are….Catholic health care is to reach out to people and help them in their need. Of course, it’s vital to be true to the ethics we believe in. Holding life sacred is a big piece of what we believe.”
Resurrection is practicing the system with honesty and care, informing the women of all the risks involved, treating them as high-risk pregnancies, and tracking their outcomes. They also make sure that the women who have been escorted by pro-life sidewalk counselors have not been coerced.
These steps are a breath of fresh air after a month filled with videos of Planned Parenthood flaunting notification laws and overlooking the situation of the woman, along with the gruesome revelations involving Kermit Gosnell’s house of horrors.
Though Resurrection’s plan cannot save every unborn child who comes in their doors, they make their best effort to do so. They give these struggling and desperate mothers a second chance at making the right decision. They offer a safe, transparent, and caring option to the deceptive abortion industry.
As director of client services at The Women’s Center Peg Brunk notes, “[w]e do have to recognize that true choice means opening up the conversation to include information and education and having enough respect for the women to allow them to be exposed to all of that.”
One 28 year-old woman is thankful for the intervention of Resurrection. She and her boyfriend were offered a ride home by a “pushy” priest who was waiting outside the abortion clinic when they left. The woman and her boyfriend decided to keep the baby after the counseling of the priest. “Thank God this man stopped us,” she said. “He saved the life of my baby and maybe he saved my life too.”
For more information on The Women’s Center in Chicago, visit their website by clicking here.
For more information on the Pro-Life Action League, visit their website by clicking here.
For more information on Resurrection Medical Center, visit their website by clicking here.
The SBA Pro-Life America National Pro-life Scorecard is a tool that helps hold members of Congress accountable for their legislative records on life and that highlights leadership in the fight to serve women and save babies.
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