Abortion politics trumps access to medical care

Three Kentucky hospitals have moved ahead with a hospital merger, leaving the University of Louisville Hospital in the dust after Gov. Steve Beshear refused to let U of L Hospital join the merger. The new hospital system, called Kentucky One is now the largest network of hospitals in the state.

And U of L Hospital? They're left wondering how they are going to be able to survive at all in a world in which about the only way for a hospital to remain financially sound is to be a part of a larger hospital network.

What is clear from the way things have shaken out is just how committed liberal Democratic politicians like Steve Beshear are to left-wing social groups like the ACLU, The Fairness Campaign, and Planned Parenthood.

The liberals would rather threaten access to medical care for everyone in Louisville than to upset groups whose chief interest is in controlling the population of poor people through "reproductive services."

U of L Hospital is by all accounts in desperate financial straights and is in danger of either going under or having to be bailed out by taxpayers. The Catholic Hospitals didn't need U of L  Hospital, but U of L Hospital needed the Catholic Hospital system bad.

Despite the prospect of another leakage of tax dollars in a system of state government that already leaks like a sieve (just check out the retirement system) Beshear tried to put a halt to the proceedings--an action that resulted in the rest of the hospitals, including Louisville's Jewish Hospital, throwing up their hands and shoving off  without U of L, which was left standing there surrounded by left-wing protesters cheering for their little political victory that won't cost them a dime, but could cost the taxpayers plenty.

Forget the Governor's protestation about U of L being a "public asset that should not be controlled by the private sector," or that the merger was "not in the best interest of the Commonwealth." This was left-wing abortion politics plain and simple.

The hospital was a private entity which operated in conjunction with U of L, which, until 1970 was a private university and is operated by a private non-profit corporation. Beshear's and Attorney General Jack Conway's basic argument is that, since the hospital gets a lot of state money, it's a state hospital. Well, they'll be giving them a lot more money now just to keep them afloat.


And the groups they kowtowed to that put them in this situation won't be the ones paying for it.

Courier-Journal favors fairness, except in its news stories

The Louisville Courier-Journal had has dispensed even with the pretense of fairness in the story of the UofL hospital merger, running an article completely devoted to opponents and not mentioning a single voice critical of the governor's decision to pull the plug on the deal.

Not one.

Ironically, one of the panoply of left-wing groups whose comments were featured in the article which was anything but fair was the "Fairness" Campaign.

Maybe, as the paper continues to shrink and staff continue to be let go, the ombudsman office is just empty now. Not that it ever seemed to matter before.

Rich White Kentucky Liberals Saved: Beshear vetoes hospital merger

Rich white liberals concerned that population control programs for the poor in Louisville might be cut as a result of University of Louisville Hospital merger with two Catholic hospitals will be popping their champagne corks and dancing all night after Gov. Steve Beshear announced today that he has pulled the plug on the plan.

UofL Hospital and Louisville's Jewish Hospital were slated to come under the control of a Catholic Health Care management group through a merger with Lexington's St. Joseph Hospital and St. Mary's Healthcare, a move that critics worried could mean the end of programs aimed at reducing pregnancies among poor women.

The threatened services to restrict the reproduction of the poor are called "reproductive services."

The opposition to UofL's merger with Catholic hospitals was led by State Reps. Tom Burch and Mary Lou Marzian, both of whom are Catholics. These two Catholics who oppose Catholic teaching on reproduction services that restrict reproduction were undoubtedly delighted by the Governor's action.

Now the critics can munch their caviar in the knowledge that they won't have to look out their limousine windows and see so many poor people running around.

Louisville metro government action threatens medical service to poor

This is several days old, but it hasn't gotten any less ridiculous after seven days:

Louisville Metro Government is delaying an $803,000 payment to University Hospital to fund medical care for poor people this month because of some council members’ concerns over the hospital’s proposed merger.

Hospital spokesman David McArthur said he could not say Monday night if care for the poor would be affected without the money.

The chief concern expressed about the merger is that some poor people won't get "reproductive services" (a term which, we have pointed out, means "anti-reproductive services"). So now Metro government, in order to try to ensure that some poor people are not denied services, are, by withholding their money, threatening to deny poor people services.

You gotta hand it to these people. They are creative.

Culling the herd of poor people

I mean, when is the last time a public university hospital answered to an archbishop? Or a Jewish hospital voluntarily elected to place itself under the ultimate authority of the Pope?

The University of Louisville Hospital and Louisville's Jewish Hospital want to merge with St. Joseph's Hospital and St. Mary's Hospital under an agreement that would result in placing them under the authority of a Catholic health care organization and the prospect has set off wailing and gnashing of teeth among Caring Liberals who fear it will interfere with their philanthropic plans to sterilize poor people and control their numbers through birth control.

These benevolent liberals are concerned about the fate of "reproductive services" (defined as services that prevent reproduction) that they fear poor people will lose access to under an agreement that would result in placing the two non-religious hospitals under Catholic strictures on abortion, sterilization, and birth control.

The Church, for its part, operates under the old-fashioned notion that poor people should be treated with dignity and respect, and that those goals properly excludes the attempt to decrease their numbers like they were a herd of elk.

What's nice to see is the new breed of Catholic hierarchy which are slowly replacing the liberal leaders of the past (who were the ones in charge, we might point out, during the mishandling of the priest abuse scandals), and who are, praise be, standing up for Catholic principles. Here's the account given of Archbishop Kurtz's take on the situation in USA Today:

Louisville Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz said Thursday he would only approve a merged hospital system under Roman Catholic ownership if all the participants, including University Hospital, agreed to follow the church's ethical rules for medical care.

In other words, the Archbishop is standing on the principles of the Church, and is apparently willing to let the deal go if those principles cannot be followed. Which leaves, of course, the other parties, who must either stand on their ethically questionable principles that violate the sanctity of human life, or on their concern for the financial bottom line.

This is one of the tragedies of modern health care: hospitals now are all about making money. In fact, one of the things the Catholic Church needs to do is to return the practice of medicine under their control into a charitable enterprise it once was.

Sterilization of horses bad; sterilization of poor people good

While some liberals are protesting the prospect that wild horses might be sterilized in Wyoming, other liberals are protesting the prospect that poor people might not be sterilized in Kentucky.

Like I said, it's a crazy world.