roblems involving the possible merger of secular public hospitals with their Catholic counterparts have resulted in an end to talks in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and a victory for pro-choice, family planning advocates in New Jersey.

   ¶    Last week, groups supporting access to abortions, contraception and other family planning measures won a major victory involving non-Catholic hospitals which are being absorbed into a giant church-operated healthcare system.

   Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan New Jersey received over $2 million from St. Barnabas Health Care System, which will be used to provide services at the former Wayne General Hospital. The secular facility is now known as St. Joseph's Wayne Hospital.

   A similar situation exists at the Episcopal Christ Hospital, which once offered a variety of contraceptive and abortion services, but has now been absorbed by the Catholic-owned Bon Secours New Jersey Health System. BSNJ, a nine-state Catholic healthcare conglomerate, now owns St. Mary Hospital in Hoboken and St. Francis Hospital in Jersey City.

   Take-overs and mergers of secular, community hospitals by Catholic affiliated corporations has become a problem in many states, including New Jersey. The church opposes most forms of contraception, abortion and other family planning programs; and the wave of acquisitions has led to a reduction in the availability of such services in many areas. Rancocas Hospital in Burlington County, for instance, stopped providing abortions in 1998 when it was absorbed by Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden. Orange Hospital also stopped family planning services when it was taken over by Cathedral Healthcare System Inc. of Newark, and similar fate befell Dover Hospital after it was absorbed by Saint Claire's Health Services in the mid-1990s.

   According to Catholics for a Free Choice, a citizens group which opposes the Vatican's stand on abortion, there have been 84 mergers involving Catholic and secular/public hospitals between 1990 and 1998. In nearly all cases, family planning programs were either restricted or eliminated altogether.

   Pro-choice and civil liberties groups have fought this growing trend, though, by seeking to obtain settlements which could be used to continue abortion and contraception services at independent clinics. In at least one merger, the respective hospitals were permitted to retain their "identity," with one continuing to offer family planning. An agreement involving Elizabeth General Medical Center and St. Elizabeth's Hospital set aside $2.4 million for a local Planned Parenthood chapter to use in helping low-income women pay for abortions and tubal ligations, according to the Bergen County Record newspaper.

   ¶    Last week, St. Luke's Hospital and Regional Trauma Center in Duluth, Minnesota announced that it was breaking off merger talks with Ministry Health Care Corp. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Minneapolis Star Tribune noted that the proposed deal and merger of two other hospitals "had prompted concern from some citizens because all three would have been affiliated in some way with the Roman Catholic Church." During a public hearing in January, residents of Duluth told officials that they feared that the new conglomerate would restrict availability to family planning services.

   According to the Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, a spokesperson for St. Luke's "maintained that merger talks broke down over business issues and not 'differences in policies on reproductive services.' "

   Nearly 10% of the nation's hospitals are operated by the Church or church-owned healthcare systems, and that number continues to grow. With rising costs and stagnant levels of payment from Medicare and private insurers, secular hospitals are experiencing a major cash crunch. Well-oiled Catholic conglomerates of often the only way to maintain a presence in many communities, but the price is often an end to practices which violate the "Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Systems."

   Referrals are another problem when the church takes over a community hospital. In many cases, patients which solicit prohibited services cannot find a referral or a nearby, affordable provider. Catholics for a Free Choice says that the number of healthcare markets where the church-run hospital is the only provider is now 76, up from 46 just three years ago.

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