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20 Cath. Law. 317 (1974)
Compelling Hospitals to Provide Abortion Services

handle is hein.journals/cathl20 and id is 329 raw text is: COMPELLING HOSPITALS TO PROVIDE ABORTION SERVICES MARTIN F. MCKERNAN, JR.* I'd like to talk about four areas: the first is the New Jersey case, Doe v. Bridgeton Hospital Association,' the second is an analysis of the twin opinions of the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade2 and Doe v. Bolton,3 vis-d- vis the compulsion of health care facilities to provide abortion services, the third is the concept of state action in this particular area, and the fourth is a suggestive preventive matter for health care facilities which desire not to permit the performance of elective abortions. The first then is a discussion of the case of Doe v. Bridgeton Hospital Association, which arose suddenly last summer when, on a Wednesday afternoon after three women had been denied elective abortions in three hospitals in South Jersey, their attorneys sought and obtained a temporary restraining order against the implementation of hospital policies which allowed only therapeutic abortions. Wednesday evening the attorneys for these three hospitals, joined as amicus curiae by the New Jersey Hospital Association, appealed that decision to a single judge of the Appellate Divi- sion of the Superior Court of New Jersey. Now I realize that the procedural niceties are different in the various states, but I think that the whole concept is somewhat of general application. The single appellate judge, finding that having a child was not irrepar- able harm, stayed the order of the lower court. On Thursday morning the case was heard by the full panel of the Appellate Division which sustained the judge's stay of the lower court order. The case was taken to the New Jersey Supreme Court which refused to tamper with the decision of the Appellate Division and remanded the case for further consideration and a full hearing. So, in any event, the abortions did not take place in these three hospitals and the case is now before the Superior Court in Atlantic County. We go to trial on June 3rd. It is a unique case in that it is, to my knowledge, the first time that a nonprivate hospital with no religious connection has been sued to allow the performance of abortions in its * Special Counsel to New Jersey Catholic Hospital Association. 130 N.J. Super. 416, 327 A.2d 448 (1974). 2 410 U.S. 113 (1973). 3 410 U.S. 179 (1973).

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