BY CLARE HOWARD
Federally funded health care clinics cannot operate under rules that are religiously based, however, some of the lease agreements between Heartland Health Services and OSF Saint Francis Medical Center have restrictions that limit counseling and access to contraception at some of the clinic’s community locations.
“What we are hearing is very disturbing,” said Ed Yohnka, director of communications and public policy at the American Civil Liberties Union in Chicago.
He stressed the ACLU is discussing the situation with Heartland and looking at a range of advocacy steps to resolve it.
“We may get policy changed short of litigation,” he said.
Jamie Messmore, spokeswoman for Heartland Health Services, confirmed some of the clinic locations operate under lease agreements bound by religious beliefs referred to as ERDs or ethical and religious directives. Heartland operates six clinics in Peoria.
However, Messmore said when patients want contraceptive services not provided at some of the clinics, they are provided with transportation in the form of a bus pass or cab voucher so she believes this restriction should not be an cincern.
“We have had several conversations with ACLU. We have the same goal in mind: access to healthcare for all,” she said.
Messmore said Heartland is looking into purchasing the clinic at 1701 W. Garden St. that currently restricts access to comprehensive contraception. No funds are being raised at this time for a purchase, she confirmed, and she is not aware of a purchase price.
“We are looking at the ACLU inquiry seriously,” she said.
Jenna Prochaska, an ACLU staff attorney, said the restrictions undermine patient access and that is critically important especially in Peoria with its higher than state average teen birth rates.
“We hope to keep working with Heartland to resolve this,” she said.
For his part, Yohnka said it is critical that a federally funded clinic not operate under rules that are religiously based. All patients should have access to a full range of reproductive health care. Yohnka said it has been well over a year that ACLU has heard these reports and tried to communicate with Heartland about these concerns.
Legislation in Springfield to expand access
“ACLU believes the individual woman makes these decisions. It is a human right, a fundamental human right, and politicians should not be able to decide simply because a woman is poor or insured by state insurance,” Yohnka said, stressing his concern that these rights are being chipped away in many states in the country.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade in 1973 establishing a woman’s right to a safe and legal abortion, restrictions have proliferated. Chief among them is the Hyde Amendment that states there should be no federal funding for abortion except in cases of rape, incest or the life of the mother. However, those exceptions are narrow and difficult to qualify for even when women have filed police reports.
“People can say abortion is accessible to poor women, but if doctors won’t perform it, abortion is not accessible,” said State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago.
Some states, not including Illinois, use their own funds to provide access to abortion for poor women. This is not a budgetary issue because access to abortion is comparatively inexpensive.
Seeking to expand Medicaid in Illinois, Rep. Feigenholtz is chief sponsor of legislation (H.B. 4013) to strike the Hyde Amendment in the state. She would also like to strike the “trigger law” that would mean if Roe v. Wade is ever overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, abortion would still remain legal under state law.
“It’s important for people to call their legislators and ask for an up or down vote,” she said. “Women have a right to safe and legal abortion no matter who insures them, Medicaid or private insurance. This is an issue of insurance parity.”
She added that in most developed countries in the world, women have access to a full range of reproductive health care.
One of the leading factors determining that women live in poverty is unplanned pregnancies, Rep. Feigenholtz said.
Brigid Leahy, director of public policy at Planned Parenthood of Illinois, said restrictions to abortion “target women who are most vulnerable.”
She added, “Abortion is virtually inaccessible to low-income women with very limited resources.
“We strongly believe reproductive health care should not depend on where you get your insurance,” she said, noting 90 percent of counties in Illinois have no abortion provider so even with coverage or the required cash, women have to arrange for childcare, travel and take time off from work, increasing the difficulty of access.