Louisville Magazine

FEB 2012

Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.

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stresses) agreed to ask everyone they knew to throw in $15 to support the publication of a half-page advertisement in the C-J protesting the potential impact of the merger. Around 10 a.m. the following Wednesday, Goldman sent a mass email inviting friends to participate in the ad. Within an hour she had 100 pledges and more supporters pour- ing in. In 24 hours she had 500 contributors. Even reducing the ad type size to 7 points only allowed her to run 463 names. "I must have gotten about 10 copies of the email," says Loving, as her friends forwarded Goldman's original plea to their friends. "It was a wonderful grassroots network. And nobody used Twitter or Facebook, as far as I know. It was all emails, and everybody signed up." Among the names appearing on the ad, ti- tled "U of L Barters Away Women's Health," were Emily Bingham, historian and daughter of former C-J publisher Barry Bingham Jr.; Mary Moss Greenebaum, a U of L Board of Overseers member and founder of the Ken- tucky Author Forum; Roger Hale, retired CEO of LG&E; state Sen. Denise Harper- Angel; Dr. Garrett Adams, a pediatrician and retired U of L faculty member; ob-gyn Dr. Janet Honchell Day; Dr. Charles Sarasohn, a pediatric and neonatology specialist; and Dr. Richard S. Wolf, retired medical director of Kosair Children's Hospital. U of L names its pediatric residents in his honor. Te ad ran three times, on July 23, 24 and 27. Almost immediately, Catholic Health Initiatives and other merger members began running full-page ads. Teir campaign even- tually included billboards and radio time. Nurse-turned-lawyer Beverly Glascock also had started researching the merger's im- pact with the publication of Howington's story on tubal ligation procedures. A Roman Catholic herself, she began reading online Catholic magazines, which alerted her to problems that went beyond tubal ligation at other Catholic hospitals. A letter to the editor she wrote, published July 27, pointed out how much broader the issue might be. "Te Catholic directives that are proposed for use at University Hospital involve not just tubal ligation and end-of-life choices, but emergency medical treatment to women who develop life-threatening conditions during pregnancy," she wrote. "Unfortunately, there are a number of condi- tions that . . . require an abortion to save the mother's life, including pre-eclampsia and eclampsia, ectopic pregnancy, sepsis, miscar- riage and more." Te next day, Glascock's phone started to ring. "People I didn't know started sending me emails and calling me up," she says. Glascock, Loving, and Goldman came together over the issue, gradually organiz- ing meetings and getting others, such as 2.12 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE [57] K.A. Owens, co-chair of Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Oppression, involved. In October, state Attorney Gen- eral Jack Conway ruled University Hospital a public institution — a ruling at odds with hospital and university opinion. On Nov. 1, the Kentucky Alliance board voted to oppose the merger, and issued a statement calling University Hospital a public hospital. Owens went on to draw in other groups, including the Jefferson County chapter of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, the Fairness Campaign, the Justice Resource Center, Occupy Louisville, the Feminist Al- liance of the University of Louisville, and Women in Transition, all of which endorsed the Alliance statement during a press confer- ence at City Hall Dec. 12. On Dec. 30 and Jan. 9, Gov. Beshear twice rejected the merger that would have united University Hospital, CHI-part-owned Jew- ish Hospital & St. Mary's Medical Center, and CHI-owned St. Joseph Health System in Lexington. Meanwhile, the other hospitals merged without University. In November, the Board of Health issued its final analysis of the merger situation. It concluded that not only had merger partners failed to promptly bring community atten- tion to the merger, but so had the Board of Health and the media. In Altman's view, there is plenty of blame to go around. "We were at fault — the board was — by failing to have a pro-active plan- ning discussion," Altman says. "Te merger organizations failed, we think, in their ob- ligation to engage the community. And the press failed to be aware of the significance of the change." Q Public crusaders: the original merger skeptic, Board of Health vice chair Gabriella Alcalde (right), and merger-deal opponents (from left) Beverly Glascock, Honi Marleen Goldman and Jessica Loving.

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