ACLU join Planed Parenthood in fight against New York Health care Reform

Posted on November 28, 2006

Cross Posted from Revealing the ACLU: I found the following, somewhat odd, press release on the ACLU’s website this evening.

Proposed closings, downsizings and consolidations of New York hospitals recommended by a state commission today could endanger community access to reproductive health services, women’s health advocates warned today.

The Reproductive Rights Project of the New York Civil Liberties Union, the MergerWatch Project and Planned Parenthood of New York City urged state and local policymakers to hold public hearings on the potential impact of the newly released recommendations of the New York State Commission on Health Facilities in the 21st Century.

[...]

“We are concerned that three of these proposed closings and mergers would seriously impair local women’s ability to get adequate health services,” said Elisabeth Benjamin, Director of the NYCLU Reproductive Rights Project. “After taking public comments back in the spring, the Commission has made all of its decisions behind closed doors, and their recommendations clearly fail to consider the impact these proposed closures and mergers have on women’s health. The public must be permitted a chance to comment on the Commission’s report.”

In the ACLU / Planned Parenthood speak “adequate health services” translates into “unfettered access to abortion on demand”. But even with that, I fail to see why the report would catch the interest of the ACLU Reproductive Rights team and Planned Parenthood. I even went so far as to download a copy of the full report and read though the executive summary.

Then I found it in the ACLU press release itself.

Benjamin noted that the Commission proposes to merge Kingston Hospital and Benedictine Hospital, which are located a short distance from each other in Kingston, even though the community previously objected to Benedictine’s proposal to impose Catholic health care restrictions on the merged entity.

Other closings and mergers of concern for their possible adverse impact on women’s health are the closure of Bellevue Hospital and proposed merger of Ellis Hospital and St. Claire’s Hospital in Schenectady County, the proposed merger of Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center and Mount St. Mary’s Medical Center in Lewiston, and the proposed merger of Arnot Ogden Hospital and St. Joseph’s Hospital in the Syracuse region.

The light comes on. It is about abortion, naturally. Remember just before the holiday that a court upheld the Weldon Amendment which, in a nutshells, protects faith based organizations, like hospitals, from performing optional procedures which are in conflict with that organizations ethical and religious beliefs.

So the real issue is not about quality of health care, it is simply about the ACLU and PP being blocked by the Weldon Amendment and they are now trying to attack the same argument from a different direction.

I encourage you to read the executive summary of the NY Health Reform report. It is a quick read, and I think any rational person who reads the report will acknowledge the logic, calm non-partisan deliberation, and good sense which went into the recommendations. The changes are necesary to maintain the level of care in the state of New York, and the exceptions that the ACLU and PP have drawn are a microcosm of the overall recommendations for this state wide initiative.

If this shows us anything, it is the simple fact that to the ACLU and PP simple policy and political maneuvering trumps true heath concerns. The overall effect of implementing the changes in this report is an increase in the level, quality,and cost of care.

But the ACLU would rather sacrifice that in order to ensure the deaths of as many unborn as possible.

UPDATE: Reuters has picked up the NY Reform report, but doesn’t mention the ACLU / PP connection. However, it dose go into a fair amount of detail on the challenges New York is Facing and the the commissions recommendation to fix the problem. As you read it, please keep in mind that the ACLU and PP is trying to derail all this over the right to kill the unborn.

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Comments

8 Responses to “ACLU join Planed Parenthood in fight against New York Health care Reform”

kerwin_brown on November 28th, 2006 11:18 pm

New York is Democrat Territory which usually means they would be naturally biased in support of the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. If they are doing this then there is probably a very good reason.

I do not like the idea of the government shutting down hospitals as it seems like a socialist exercise as well as anti competition.
Jeff Molby on November 29th, 2006 1:44 am

So the real issue is not about quality of health care, it is simply about the ACLU and PP being blocked by the Weldon Amendment and they are now trying to attack the same argument from a different direction.

Kind of, but not really. Ok, so the Weldon amendment is here to stay. That’s fine.

But when merging two hospitals results in an area that is served solely by a faith-based organization that exercises its right to restrict healthcare options, that does pose a public health problem to those who don’t subscribe that particular organization’s views.

I know most of you probably don’t consider it a “public health problem” in this case because the relevant medicines and procedures have to do with abortion, but take this logic to its extreme for a minute.

Suppose the only hospital serving your neighborhood happened to be based on a faith which frowned on manufactured medicine. Would you really feel safe living there?

Having said all that, it seems like the report addresses this issue. Page 9 says the merger should be “contingent upon Kingston Hospital continuing to provide access to reproductive services in a location proximate to the hospital.”

I’m not sure of the exact meaning of “reproductive services”, but my guess is that means there should be some sort of clinic in the area to serve that population.

If my understanding is correct, it seems like a pretty wise compromise, so I’m sure the ACLU and PP would go along with it once they are assured that something will be done to balance the needs of the whole community.
davef on November 29th, 2006 9:12 am

I know most of you probably don’t consider it a “public health problem” in this case because the relevant medicines and procedures have to do with abortion, but take this logic to its extreme for a minute.

Suppose the only hospital serving your neighborhood happened to be based on a faith which frowned on manufactured medicine. Would you really feel safe living there?

The Weldon Amendment makes a clear distinction between medically necesary treatment and elective or optional treatment, so the argument dosn’t really work.

The real issue here is Abortion, and access to it. Anything that decreases the availability flys in the face of PP and the ACLU.
Rico J Halo on November 29th, 2006 10:15 am

What I find interesting about them merging with the Catholic run hospitals is that, to me anyway, it says they are run much more efficiently. The ACLU and PP should be worried if thats happening in a stronghold of liberalism like NY.
Jeff Molby on November 29th, 2006 3:39 pm

What I find interesting about them merging with the Catholic run hospitals is that, to me anyway, it says they are run much more efficiently.

I don’t know how you drew that conclusion. This is just a matter of overcapacity. You take the best assets/people from each building and then close one of them.
Rico J Halo on November 30th, 2006 1:16 am

Why did I say that? Because they didnt say they were merging the Catholic run hospitals with the others. They said they were merging them with the Catholic hospitals.

Plus my job of over 25 years has had me in and out of most of the hospitals in this end of the state and I can see plain as day that the Catholic hospitals are run in a much more conservative fiscal manner. I would assume it’s the same way in NY.
Jeff Molby on November 30th, 2006 1:26 am

Why did I say that? Because they didnt say they were merging the Catholic run hospitals with the others. They said they were merging them with the Catholic hospitals.

I had assumed that there were only two underutilized hospitals in that area. Are there more that could have been involved in a merger?

Plus my job of over 25 years has had me in and out of most of the hospitals in this end of the state and I can see plain as day that the Catholic hospitals are run in a much more conservative fiscal manner. I would assume it’s the same way in NY.

Fair enough. That’s just an anecdotal observation, but I respect where you’re coming.
Rico J Halo on November 30th, 2006 1:44 am

Im new here so Im not sure yet how to do quotes, Ill figure it out eventually though

Here in Calif we have the opposite of under utilization. Our hospitals are so over used (and under funded due to use by non paying illegal aliens) we have lost almost 100 hospitals in the last 10 years.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43275

And if you read between the lines in this speech by our Senator Diane Feinstein she is saying basically the same thing just couched in PC lib speak.

http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/speeches00/healthcare.html

And that was 6 years ago. Its become much worse since then.

But then I am often called a racist for not only using the “I” word but I insist on making a distinction between legal and illegal immigrants.

Sorry, I wasnt meaning to hijack this topic, my apologies.