Pro-abortion feminist: Hospital sign affirming dignity of human life is a ‘shaming tactic’

A pro-life sign in a Catholic hospital was too much for one pro-abortion blogger, who took Twitter to express her ire.

St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Stockton, California, is a Catholic hospital, and part of the Dignity Health network. The hospital has a clear pro-life mission statement: “For Dignity Health, respecting the dignity of persons requires reverence at every stage of life’s journey from conception to natural death. Therefore, direct abortion is not performed.”

Jessica Valenti is an author and feminist commentator who writes about abortion in her “Abortion Every Day” substack, newsletter, and podcast. When a reader sent her a picture of a sign in the labor and delivery ward proclaiming the hospital’s pro-life values, she couldn’t contain her outrage. The sign summarized the hospital’s mission in a concise statement: “St. Joseph’s Medical Center promotes the dignity of human life from the moment of conception until death. Therefore, abortion is not performed here.”

Jessica Valenti

@JessicaValenti

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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:

2:37 PM · Mar 13, 2023

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Valenti took to Twitter to vent her anger (note: edited for profanity):

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? […] Or maybe, just maybe, this sign is simply meant to be a nasty, condescending shaming tactic that targets patients in their most vulnerable moments. As a doctor friend of mine said when I texted her the picture: F*ck these people.

A common false belief among supporters of abortion is that late-term abortions are typically only committed for serious medical reasons. The reality is that induced abortion — the intentional, targeted taking of a preborn life — is not medically necessary, and is not health care (because health care doesn’t intentionally kill humans) – especially in the third trimester, which unambiguously involves the intentional killing of a fully-formed human being capable of surviving outside the womb.

Contrary to the arguments of abortion supporters, as Live Action News has reported, even the research of multiple pro-abortion organizations shows that the vast majority of late term abortions are done for elective, rather than medical, reasons. Some peer-reviewed studies, including one reported by Secular Pro-Life, showed: “The new information respondents received that led to their decision to obtain an abortion [after 24 weeks gestation] was not exclusively related to fetal health. For some respondents, the new information they obtained was that they were pregnant.”

Despite this, Valenti proclaimed that she “didn’t care” about the Catholic hospital’s values, and wondered what the point of the sign was. The polarization of abortion supporters in the wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision has resulted in abortion activists ignoring the science and facts, and promoting abortion on demand through all stages of pregnancy. For instance, last year Gov. Newsom of California – a state that has made efforts to promote itself as an abortion haven in the wake of Dobbs – signed legislation into law that many feared would legalize infanticide.

Valenti’s animosity toward the pro-life values of a Catholic hospital comes in a climate where such institutions are frequently pressured to violate their conscience, or worse, become the target of vandalism, violence, and harassment. Abortion supporters like Valenti continue to ignore the tragic cases of parents who have reported being pressured to abort, or tragically have unintentionally aborted healthy babies.

Encouragingly, a number of Twitter users ignored Valenti’s ire, and responded positively to the sign.

“It’s a great sign. This should be in every hospital. No hospital should ever be killing patients because are disabled, unwanted, sick, unborn, vulnerable, or old,” tweeted Fr. Matthew Schneider.

Pro-Life Action League concurred. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was a sign like this in EVERY hospital all across the country?”

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