Bishop Removes Catholic Tag on Hospital Doing Abortion

by Steven Ertelt
Phoenix, AZ
LifeNews.com
 12/21/10

Bishop Thomas Olmsted of the Diocese of Phoenix has removed the Catholic designation from St. Joseph’s Medical Center because of a controversial abortion it performed last year.

The hospital’s head of its ethics committee, Sr. Margaret McBride, approved the abortion of an 11-week unborn baby whose mother suffered from pulmonary hypertension. Olmsted gave the hospital’s parent, Catholic Healthcare West, until today to confirm its policies on abortion to those of the Catholic Church or face decertification of its status as a Catholic hospital.

Olmsted had originally given Catholic Healthcare West, the parent of St. Joseph’s Hospital until Friday to change its abortion policy but has extended the deadline to Tuesday after some late-minute confidential communication between the two. the rest