By Tim Waggoner
AUSTIN, TX, July 4, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An anonymous report providing evidence from government statistics has indicated that 23 Catholic hospitals in Texas performed 39 abortions and 9684 sterilizations between 2000 and 2003.
As reported by Our Sunday Visitor, the State of Texas makes all hospital inpatient records publicly available. An anonymous group used this data to compile a report on the alleged immoral activities taking place in Catholic hospitals and released it to the website, Wikileaks, which operates in order to house this kind of information.
A spokesperson for the group said they released the information in order to increase awareness of the immoral practices Catholic hospitals were engaging in, but were afraid of retaliation and therefore remained anonymous.
According to Andrew Rivas, director of the Texas Catholic Conference, the official voice of the Texas bishops, an investigation into the accuracy of the reports has already been initiated by the bishops.
Our Sunday Visitor asked obstetrician/gynecologist Dr. Michael DeGroot to analyze the data in the report, which contains many codes representing certain medical practices. He said that the code V25.2, which appeared many times, indicates that "sterilization for contraceptive purposes," was being performed. The abortion codes, however, were more complicated and he said he could not issue a definitive assessment on them.
Rivas said there is no deadline set for the bishop's investigation, but they have been engaged in intense conversations with many hospital authorities over the report.
See the anonymous report here:
http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Catholic_hospitals_betray_miss...
To contact the Texas Catholic Conference:
1625 Rutherford Lane, Building D
Austin, Texas, USA, 78754
Telephone: 512-339-9882
