The criminally negligent cancer that has led the Catholic Church to become the number one defender of child rapists and abusers within their priesthood and leadership, has reared its ugly head in the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital. The 160 year-old institution was eerily quiet yesterday when I paid a visit to the place. It shut operations on April 15th and now the fate of what could end up being a community clinic lays in the middle of political theater and takeover bluffery.

I am personally not in favor of a bail out of the Catholic Church anytime soon. Am particularly enraged by the mismanagement and closing of the Elizabeth Seton Childbirthing Center. I gave birth to my second son with the assistance of the ESCbC midwives; albeit at the hospital because he was a VBAC. I will never forgive St. Vincent's for denying thousands of women in Manhattan the best midwifery and doula services we've ever had.

The official statement released by the hospital and midwife staff was that soaring malpractice premiums forced them to close the center. The gossip was very different: The hospital had been waging a silent battle with the midwives over ideological differences dealing with birth control, abortion counseling, the use of doulas and close scrutiny from obstetricians. Allegedly, the hospital wanted them to be under the control of the ob/gyns (and supposedly bill insurance companies via that department) instead of working as the separate entity they had been since the clinic's opening in 1975. And the last thing I heard through the grapevine was that they also allegedly had a massive tug of war over real estate. The hospital didn't want them as a standalone clinic anymore. The boardroom prevailed over the birthing room and they closed down in 2003.

And yet, as mad as I am at the hospital's mismanagers, it terrifies me to think there will be no emergency and trauma care services in the West Village. In the 1990's my father was revived in their emergency room after a diabetic coma at a local restaurant. While at NYU, my own life was saved at that same emergency room after a terrible combination of anaphylactic & asthma attacks.

State Health Commissioner Richard Daine claims to be working on maintaining emergency care; but given the very apparent conflict of interest he has int he process and the callous "it's just business" comments of his spokeswoman, it would take a miracle for the city or state to do good on the community.