Pro-life OB-GYN Dr. Christina Francis sounds off on controversial ban from medical conference: ‘It’s very disappointing’
CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists Dr. Christina Francis joined ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ to discuss the organization’s controversial ban from a medical conference.
Author Jessica Valenti's feminist condemnation of a Catholic hospital's pro-life sign espousing the "dignity of human life from conception to death" became a spectacle for National Review writer Charles Cooke, who slammed her as a "lunatic," but the Twitter rant also sparked larger conversations on the topic.
"This will be in my newsletter this afternoon, but I had to vent about it now. A reader sent me this picture of a sign that's prominently displayed as you walk into the Labor & Delivery Unit of Dignity Health’s St. Joseph's Medical Center in Stockton, California," Valenti tweeted Monday with a picture of the hospital's sign.
Valenti, an author best known for writing feminist books and commentary, continued by lambasting the hospital in the thread, "I don’t care that it’s a Catholic hospital: What’s the point of this sign? Do women looking normally rush into the Labor & Delivery Ward looking for abortions? Are the doctors there confused about what procedures they’re meant to perform?"
Jessica Valenti, Columnist, Author, speaks at a panel discussion about sexual harassment and rape in the workplace at the 2018 ACLU National Conference at the Washington Convention Center on June 12, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images)
She further alleged the sign could be a shaming tactic against women who are in their "most vulnerable moments," begged the question of how someone might feel going into the delivery room and seeing the sign as someone who formerly had an abortion and slammed the medical center for "gleefully getting in potshots" as patients walked in the door.
"As a doctor friend of mine said when I texted her the picture: F--- these people."
An ultrasound of a fetus is shown. (iStock)
Comments on Valenti's thread were a mixed bag, with Allison Arieff, editorial director of print at MIT Tech Review, showing search results for "abortion" on the Dignity Health website, or, in other words, the website for St. Joseph Medical Center's overseeing health system.
"When you search for ‘abortion’ on the Dignity Health site, this is all that comes up," she tweeted, showing search results for topics like "community grants," "pelvic inflammatory disease" and others.
"Translation: Women can't get good medical care there," another said of the sign.
EMBRACE ABORTION AS ‘KILLING’ TO PREVENT ‘FORCED LIFE,’ THE NATION WRITER TELLS PRO-CHOICE ACTIVISTS
Jessica Valenti attends AOL Build Speaker Series to discuss "Sex Object" at AOL Studios In New York on June 9, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images)
On the flip side, a critic of Valenti's tweet wrote, "Weird how triggered you are by the concept of celebrating life."
Another said, "Why is this a problem?" while a third wrote, "I love this sign! Thank you for sharing."
"I am so sorry there is a place where your evil ideology isn't celebrated. Must be hard for you, being confronted with things you don't like," another said.
A hospital spokesperson for St. Joseph's Medical Center sent the following statement to Fox News Digital in response to a request for comment:
"St. Joseph’s Medical Center remains deeply committed to supporting the health of all women in our communities. We realize that the sign in question may have caused distress to some of our patients and visitors in the way it was written. We acknowledge that it is outdated and does not reflect that emergency and life-saving treatment consistent with the standard of care is always provided to everyone who comes to our hospital."
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