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  • Title: The Milwaukee story: a public hospital's resistance to the Supreme Court abortion rulings.
    Author: Ambrose L.
    Journal: Fam Plann Popul Rep; 1975 Aug; 4(4):68-72. PubMed ID: 12334289.
    Abstract:
    A pregnancy was terminated at Milwaukee County General Hospital on March 12, 1975, 2 years after the Supreme Court decision on abortion and almost 8 months after a federal judge directly ordered the hospital to provide abortion services. In order for that abortion to be performed, there had to be Supreme Court action, extensive litigation in lower corts, related actions in state courts, supplementary court orders, and threatened fines and citations for contempt of court for principal hospital and county officials. Yet, the basic issues of this controversy continue. The test of a public hospital's responsibility to provide abortion services offers a case study of the way in which leadership decisions, community pressures, personal beliefs, and professional predispositions can intefere with implementation of the Supreme Court's standards on abortion rights. The hospital's rule 26(b) allows abortion only when pregnancy continuation is life-threatening to the mother. Following the Supreme Court decision, the medical staff of Milwaukee County General supported changing this aborion policy, but the director of the obstetrics and gynecology department strongly opposed any policy change. Among the tactics used to maintian the policy was the claim that there was no doctor at the hospital willing to perform an abortion along with the prohibition of payment of county funds for abortions at either the public hospital or at private hospitals by the County Board of Supervisors. It also appears that religious principles might be at work in influencing public policy decisions. Until 1967 the hospital was part of Marquette University, a private Catholic institution, and the corporation counsel representing the county is known for his opposition to abortion. To a certain extent the obstructionist attitudes that are prevalent reveal the "right to life" element at work in Milwaukee. There is no indication that Milwaukee citizens are uniformly opposed to abortion despite the rhetoric of politicians and "right to life" groups. The controversy reveals 2 different views of the purpose of public institutions and the priorities between needs of patients and prerogatives of doctors or politicans. As the controversy continues, only about 1 or 2 abortions are being performed at the hospital each week.
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