News

COLUMBUS, OH, November 22, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-life activists in the Columbus area are mounting a petition drive to ask Catholic-affiliated Mount Carmel Hospital to sever its relationships with several local abortionists, in deference to church teaching opposing abortion.

According to Right to Life of Greater Columbus, Mount Carmel allows at least two, possibly three, abortionists to maintain admitting privileges at the hospital, despite its Catholic affiliation.

Image

In Ohio, state law requires abortion providers to maintain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital in order to legally perform the procedure. By allowing these abortionists transfer privileges, the hospital is effectively helping them stay in business.

In the past, the group says they have directed questions about Mt. Carmel’s policy on admitting privileges to hospital officials. But after learning that the hospital had begun actively referring patients to doctors and facilities that perform abortions, they decided they had to act.

The group is asking pro-life supporters to sign on to a petition they have composed and will be sending to hospital president Claus von Zychlin, asking him to sever all ties with two known abortionists, along with a third doctor who works out of an abortion facility.

“As members of the local prolife community, we strongly appreciate Mt. Carmel’s commitment and mission to ‘… serve together at Mount Carmel in Trinity Health, in the spirit of the Gospel, to heal body, mind and spirit, to improve the health of our communities, and to steward the resources entrusted to us’ while adhering to a moral ethic that upholds the innate dignity due to every human from the moment of conception until natural death,” the petition reads. “We know you are serious when you say ‘Mount Carmel conducts all of its operations and patient care in a manner that is consistent with our Mission and values.’ We sincerely appreciate that you have placed all medical staff on notice that they are to ‘abide by generally recognized standards of medical and professional ethics including, but not limited to, the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Healthcare.’”

“Recently, it has come to our attention that Mt. Carmel hospital’s online physician referral page refers patients to several physicians and facilities that demonstrably violate our shared respect for human life,” the petition states.  “It is our goal to bring these concerns to your attention in the fervent hope that you will use your positions of leadership to make the necessary changes in light of these oversights and implement institutional safeguards to prevent future lapses.”

The petition goes on to name three local doctors connected to abortion: known abortionists Milroy Samuel and Karl Shaeffer, and a third doctor, Patrick Muffley, who has worked at Samuel’s abortion facility in the past.

All three doctors have spotty records when it comes to the safety of their female patients. Investigators at Milroy Samuel’s Complete Health Care for Women abortion clinic found rusted and dirty IV equipment, improperly sterilized surgical tools, expired medications, and lax infection control standards in 2012.

Karl Shaeffer’s Founder’s Women’s Health abortion facility was cited by health inspectors that same year for unsafe operating rooms and dangerous equipment, including patient tables that shocked patients when connected to electricity. Some staff at Shaeffer’s facility had expired surgical licenses, and in some cases, could not even prove they had a valid medical license at all.

Patrick Muffley is facing a 60 day suspension of his medical license for allegedly sending inappropriately sexual text messages to a patient.

Noting that hospital-affiliated abortionists have “greatly profited off the blood of the unborn,” the petitioners request that hospital executives “review the physicians mentioned above and the scope of their practices and take the appropriate action to disassociate Mount Carmel from the bloody abortion industry.”

To sign the petition to Mount Carmel, click here.