Chicago-Area Hospital's Family Planning Care Moved Off-Site After Merger With Catholic Health System

(Kaisernetwork) West Suburban Hospital Medical Center in Oak Park, Ill., will no longer offer family planning services, including the provision of emergency contraception to rape survivors, after merging with Resurrection Health Care, a Catholic health system, the Chicago Tribune reports. The Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board on Wednesday approved the merger after Resurrection agreed to spin-off three community-based clinics that will continue to provide family planning services, including EC provision. Under the merger agreement, Resurrection will transfer control of three community-based clinics that will provide family planning services mainly to Medicaid beneficiaries and uninsured patients to a new not-for-profit organization, according to the Tribune. The not-for-profit group will receive about $4 million in cash and real estate in the transfer. West Suburban Hospital will be governed by Catholic health care directives, which prohibit services including the provision of contraception, tubal ligation and EC, according to the Tribune (McNeil, Chicago Tribune, 3/11).

Reaction

A community coalition called West Suburban MergerWatch is working with the national MergerWatch Project, the National Women's Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois to assure that the community clinics are spun-off and that family planning services are accessible following the merger, according to a MergerWatch release. MergerWatch said it is "pleased" that the community clinics will remain open but is "dismayed" that West Suburban Hospital now will have to follow Catholic health system guidelines. The group said that the merger will result in "nothing more than substandard medical care for rape victims and should not have been accepted by the state of Illinois or the board of directors of West Suburban Hospital" (MergerWatch release, 3/11).

Officials from Resurrection did not reply to requests for comment on Wednesday, the Tribune reports (Chicago Tribune, 3/11).

Source: Kaisernetwork
Publish Date: March 12, 2004