NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

    LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (CWNews.com) - The Vatican has informed a Catholic hospital in Arkansas that it must stop allowing outside doctors to sterilize women in violation of the Church's teaching against artificial birth control.

    St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center did not allow sterilizations until it purchased Columbia Doctors Hospital several years ago. St. Vincent's ended abortions and sterilizations at the hospital, but resumed sterilizations last summer to qualify for some health insurance plans.

    On Tuesday, the hospital announced an end to the arrangement. "We went into this thing knowing there was a possibility that we would be asked to discontinue the agreement. That's what's happened," St. Vincent spokesman Scott Mosley said.

    Columbia Doctors asked Bishop Andrew McDonald of Little Rock to let doctors from the independent Arkansas Women's Health Center perform the procedure in the hospital. Bishop McDonald said the sterilization was "an evil in itself," but allowed it. Still, he asked the Vatican to review his approval.

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