Stericycle cancels contracts with abortion centers

The nation’s leading medical waste disposal company has cut ties with hundreds of abortion centers, according to a pro-life activist group.

Stericycle, which has a record of hauling aborted fetal waste despite a company policy against doing so, recently reiterated its policy against taking fetal remains and told the group Created Equal that it has “canceled hundreds of contracts with women’s clinics” over the past few years.

Stericycle representatives did not respond to multiple phone calls seeking to officially confirm Created Equal’s claim. But one employee who declined to give his name told me he’d heard about the canceled contracts via internal company communication.

Created Equal director Mark Harrington called Stericycle’s move “a vital first step in the process of ceasing its involvement in the abortion cartel.”

Although the waste company still takes refuse from some Planned Parenthood centers, it requires abortion providers to certify that fetal remains are not mixed in with other garbage and that they have a licensed handler for fetal remains.

Some 400 abortion centers have been unable to do so, and Stericycle no longer picks up their trash.

Stericycle president Charlie Alutto also denied having a “partnership” with Planned Parenthood and said “any Planned Parenthood location we service would be subject to our waste acceptance protocol and certification process.”

Despite the company’s certification process, various officials previously claimed Stericycle transported fetal remains for abortion centers.

In 2014, British Columbia Ministry of Health spokeswoman Kristy Anderson said Stericycle took the province’s fetal remains and sent the waste to an Oregon power plant, which allegedly burned them. The power plant later denied it had burned baby body parts, though it previously said it just burned whatever arrived in sealed boxes.

In December 2015, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine reported Stericycle at one point was the sole recipient of fetal waste from Planned Parenthood–Northeast Ohio. The fetal remains either ended up in an Ohio landfill after being steam-cooked, or were incinerated.

Last year, Created Equal launched a campaign publicizing Stericycle’s connection to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.

During the campaign, dubbed “#ProjectWeakLink,” Created Equal workers mailed postcards with a photo of an aborted baby along with Alutto’s home address and work phone number. They also drove through neighborhoods near Alutto’s home with a billboard emblazoned with Alutto’s photograph and contact information, a photo of an aborted baby, and the hashtag, “#killersamongus.”

Stericycle unsuccessfully sued Created Equal for defamation, false light invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. An Illinois judge dismissed the charges in 2016.

Created Equal sees fetal tissue disposal as the abortion industry’s “weak link.” If companies like Stericycle don’t collect the waste, abortion centers can run out of room in their freezers. Abortionist Renee Chelian joked in an undercover video taken by Created Equal about sneaking fetal remains into the woods of upper Michigan and burning them: “We are all one incinerator away, or one incineration company away, from being closed.”

Friar Paolo Benanti, professor of bioethics at the Gregorian Pontifical University Associated Press/Photo by Paolo Lucariello

Pope demands Belgian order stop euthanasia

Brothers of Charity, the Catholic order based in Belgium, must stop offering euthanasia to its patients by the end of August, according to a demand from the pope.

The international order, which cares for the elderly and mentally ill, adopted a policy in May allowing euthanasia in its 15 Belgian psychiatric hospitals. An investigation by the Vatican followed, and the Catholic Bishops of Belgium later issued a statement decrying the new rule.

The demand, supported by Pope Francis and written by the Vatican, requires the brothers to agree to the church’s teaching on the sanctity of life.

All the order’s members must sign a letter saying they support the Catholic Church’s teaching “that human life must be respected and protected in absolute terms, from the moment of conception till its natural end.”

Those who refuse could face excommunication from the Catholic Church. —S.G.

Friar Paolo Benanti, professor of bioethics at the Gregorian Pontifical University Associated Press/Photo by Paolo Lucariello

Texas advances bill requiring special insurance for abortion

The Texas legislature passed a bill that would require Texans to buy a special health insurance plan if they want coverage for non-emergency abortions.

The bill passed the House 92-46 on Tuesday and the Senate 20-10 on Friday, avoiding Democrats’ attempts to add exceptions for fetal abnormalities, rape, incest, and the mental health of the mother.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called a special legislative session last month to focus on several issues, including abortion. Meanwhile, Texas faces a lawsuit from abortion groups over its new ban on dismemberment abortion.

While states with Republican majorities like Texas have passed numerous pro-life laws this year, Democratic-majority states have worked to expand abortions. The Oregon legislature passed a bill that requires health insurance companies to cover abortion costs and allocates money to cover abortions and contraceptives for illegal immigrants. —S.G.

British health system scrutinized over care for ill babies

The case of baby Charlie Gard, who died last month after his parents waged a lengthy court battle for his life, has spotlighted numerous other cases of seriously ill children fighting for care in Britain’s National Health Service. Isaiah Haastrup’s parents are fighting doctors in order to keep the 5-month-old boy on life support. Isaiah suffered brain damage during birth. His parents say doctors have refused to transfer him to another hospital for care and are pressuring them to remove his ventilator. Meanwhile, the National Health Service agreed to transport 7-month-old Oliver Cameron to the United States for heart treatment. —S.G.