-Caveat Lector- http://chicagotribune.com/news/chi-0109030196sep03.story?coll=chi%2Dnews%2Dhed From the Chicago Tribune Hospital fires critic of abortion procedure By Tom McCann Tribune staff reporter September 3, 2001 Two years after she first thrust her employer into the national spotlight over its labor-induced abortion policy, anti-abortion activist Jill Stanek said Sunday that she has been fired from her nursing job at Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn. Hospital officials said the discharge Friday had nothing to do with the delivery room nurse's abortion views, and Stanek refused to comment Sunday on why she was let go, citing legal concerns. Stanek has relentlessly criticized the hospital since 1999. She was suspended once for leaking confidential papers to the media, she said, and twice has been put on "final warning" probation after breaking an unspecified rule in her employment contract. She has continued to give frequent media interviews to criticize the hospital's rare use of labor-induced abortion. As part of the procedure, doctors artificially deliver a fetus in the second trimester if they detect a severe abnormality that would prevent it from surviving. But the procedure can also occasionally result in fetuses living for as long as an hour outside the womb. In July, Stanek testified on the issue before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. Two weeks ago, a newspaper profile highlighted her history of activism against the hospital. When she returned to work Friday from vacation, Stanek was told she was fired and escorted from the building, she said. "It couldn't be coincidence this happened right after the article," Stanek said. But hospital spokesman Michael Maggio said the article had nothing to do with the decision to let Stanek go. "She was the main reason our hospital became the center of attention in the abortion debate," Maggio said. "But that had nothing to do with it." Maggio declined to explain why Stanek was fired, saying that personnel files are confidential. Stanek started at the hospital in 1993 and wasn't aware at first that the hospital performed labor-induced abortions. When she witnessed an aborted fetus with Down syndrome that survived outside the womb for 45 minutes, she alerted hospital officials, thinking something went wrong, she said. In 1999, after consulting her pastor, she complained to the Illinois attorney general's office. Investigators concluded that the hospital violated no state laws. But soon after, the hospital's parent, Advocate Health Care, tightened its policies to no longer permit abortions on fetuses with non-lethal birth defects like Down syndrome or spina bifida. The controversy spurred state Sen. Patrick J. O'Malley of Palos Park--now a candidate for the GOP nomination for governor--to introduce a package of bills in the legislature that would have given "born-alive" infants a right to life. After being passed in the Senate, it was killed in a House committee. "Jill Stanek is one of the most courageous women I have ever met," said O'Malley, a former member of the hospital's governing council who resigned his post because of the controversy. "I'm astounded they fired such a talented professional. They're losing one of their best." Christ Hospital has never performed elective abortions, Maggio said. Currently it does the procedure only in cases of rape, incest, where the health of the mother is threatened or if fatal abnormalities are involved. The hospital typically performs only 15 to 20 labor-induced abortions out of more than 4,000 deliveries each year, said Rev. Larry Easterling, vice president of Christ Hospital. But he said the practice is common at hospitals across the nation. 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