PORT TOWNSEND — A task force studying reproductive services offered by Jefferson Healthcare has recommended that the hospital provide abortions along with other reproductive services.
Facilitator Bertha Cooper presented the task force’s four recommendations to the hospital commissioners Wednesday.
The recommendations were to establish programs to provide elective and medical abortions, create a reproductive hotline to handle counseling requests and referrals, and develop a surgical-based miscarriage-management program.
The board did not take any action on the proposal and is expected to do so at either the July 1 or July 15 meeting, according to hospital CEO Mike Glenn.
The recommendations of the task force have apparently addressed objections about the services offered by Jefferson Healthcare hospital, according to those critical of the current policy, in which patients are referred elsewhere for abortions.
“I’m lucky to live in a community that implemented this process and took our opinions to heart,” said Christel Hildebrandt of Port Townsend after the task force’s presentation.
Added Amanda Funaro: “I was pleased with the way the hospital handled the process and the way they were responsive, helping us to get the answers so we could make educated decisions.”
Hildebrandt and Funaro served as citizen members of the task force that created the report, and both had previously criticized the hospital’s services.
If approved, all of the services could be in place by early 2016, Glenn said.
Services would be provided through current facilities and would not cost a significant amount of money.
“These services will be provided through regular primary care,” Glenn said.
“This will bring in another two to three patients a month, and since we see 250 patients a day, it will have little financial impact.”
Seven members of the hospital staff served on the committee, including physicians Molly Parker, Rachel Bickling and Chief Medical Officer Joe Mattern.
Other staff members are nurses Jane Albee, Jackie Levin, Amber Hudson and Lisa Holt, also the hospital’s chief ancillary officer.
From outside the hospital, the force recruited Jefferson County Public Health Director Jean Baldwin and nurse practitioner Susan O’Brien.
The meetings were private, as it was an administrative task force and not board-appointed.
The Seattle office of the ACLU accused the East Jefferson County hospital of being out of compliance with state law in its provision of abortion services in a Feb. 18 letter addressed to the hospital board and Glenn.
The letter asked that the hospital change its policies and practices “to fulfill its obligations under the [state] Reproductive Privacy Act.”
The hospital responded that the low amount of abortions in Jefferson County — 55 in 2013 — makes it both economically and medically infeasible, as higher-volume abortion clinics provide more efficient, inexpensive and safe services.
Proponents of local abortion services said the lack of services discriminates against low-income women by forcing them to leave the area to get access.
The hospital board approved the task force at its March 24 meeting after meeting with an ACLU representative, who seemed encouraged the hospital was taking such a methodical approach to resolving this issue, Glenn said at the time.
About 20 people attended the meeting to hear the report.
There was no public comment.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
