To the Editor,
The University of Wisconsin community, including both students and faculty, should be aware the UW Hospital and Clinics made a very important and shocking decision yesterday. The Hospital and Clinics Board is separate from the UW but carries its name, all of its Board is connected with UW or the state of Wisconsin, and it does include Biddy Martin, your chancellor, as one of those voting. The Hospital Board approved allowing second trimester abortions at their joint clinic with Meriter Hospital on the corner of Park and Regent streets. The Madison Surgery Center Board will make the final decision on the issue later this month. Today, we hear of babies being born at 20 or 21 weeks after gestation. These babies will be aborted up to 22 weeks when their humanity becomes increasingly obvious.
Some people will say that only religious people could object to killing these sizeable babies. This is an insult to all atheists and agnostics. Even in relatively nonreligious countries such as Germany, France and Italy, second trimester abortions are illegal. Proponents also claim that if University Hospital and Clinics do not provide this “service,” women will have to go to Milwaukee. University Hospita should stop and wonder why none of the dozens of other clinics in south central Wisconsin are currently performing these late-term abortions.
It would be a travesty if while other hospitals in this country make headlines for keeping these babies alive, the UW makes headlines as the place to go to kill these youngsters.
Press reports show that the majority of the employees do not want to participate in these horrendous procedures and they are having a hard time getting anesthesiologists.
I spent some time last week on the campus, and even in liberal Madison, the overwhelming number of students found this disgusting. Our UW should be a place that respects life and can be respected by the citizens of this state. It should not be the dark sleazy institution providing abortions which would be illegal in most of the industrialized world because no other clinic in south central Wisconsin is immoral enough to provide them.
Sincerely,
Glenn Grothman
State Senator
UW-Madison Alumni
