Hoag Officials Explain Decision to Stop Doing Abortions

About a week since Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian stopped offering elective abortions, most of the feedback from the public has been positive, its chief executive said today.

The hospital has received "mostly supportive correspondence" from about 35 people, Hoag CEO and President Robert Braithwaite said.

Some physicians have objected to the move, which came after Hoag formed a partnership with St. Joseph Health System, a Roman Catholic organization, to create the Covenant Health Network, which will expand medical services to the needy in the region.

During the process of developing the Covenant network, St. Joseph's officials raised the issue of abortions, Braithwaite said.

"It was in the review process that the issue of reproductive health came to light," Braithwaite said. "We knew it was an important issue to St. Joseph's, but our board stepped back and as part of their due diligence as part of the other services we were reviewing we looked at it holistically."

The decision to end elective abortions at Hoag was due to "many factors," including St. Joseph's opposition, Braithwaite said.

Demand for the procedure, for example, has significantly declined over the past several years because most women seek it in their physician's office or surgery centers, Braithwaite said.

"Candidly, many hospitals don't do it anyhow. It's really an outpatient procedure," Braithwaite said.

Women prefer the privacy and cost that a physician's office and surgery centers can provide for the procedure, Braithwaite said.

Less than 100 elective abortions have been performed at Hoag in each of the past two years, Braithwaite said.

When meeting with officials in Attorney General Kamala Harris' office about the Covenant network, one of her top aides, "understood that in this community we're fortunate to have a lot of providers like Planned Parenthood," Braithwaite said.

Ending elective abortion services at Hoag was similar to when the hospital stopped providing pediatric services about five years ago, Braithwaite said.

There was a dwindling demand for pediatric health care at Hoag and officials recognized that Children's Hospital of Orange County could do it better anyway, Braithwaite said.

"It seemed best if Hoag would support Children's Hospital and go into a partnership with them rather than try to duplicate that medical service," Braithwaite said. "We know we can't be everything to everybody and be excellent at everything."

Hoag officials eagerly anticipate the effect the Covenant partnership will have on the uninsured and under-insured in Southern California, particularly with the implementation of the new federal health care law next year, Braithwaite said.

- City News Service