Countywide : Coalition Calls for Boycott of Insurer

A coalition of women’s health centers called for a nationwide boycott of St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Co. Monday, claiming that the Minnesota firm discriminates against women seeking abortions and the doctors who perform them by systematically canceling the doctors’ medical malpractice insurance or making it unaffordable.

The Federation of Feminist Women’s Health Centers bases its allegation largely on the experience of Dr. Joseph Durante, a Palm Desert gynecologist who is suing St. Paul in federal court in Santa Ana for allegedly canceling his policy because he refused to stop performing abortions.

But Federation spokeswoman Shireen Miles said St. Paul has taken similar actions against doctors and clinics in Missoula, Mont.; St. Petersburg, Fla., and Portland, Ore. She claimed that one of St. Paul’s salespeople believes that the board of directors is anti-abortion.

Miles urged consumers to cancel policies with St. Paul in exchange for “this anti-abortion assault on our rights.”

“St. Paul has no good reason for canceling the malpractice insurance of skilled gynecologists simply because part of their practice includes the performance of abortions,” Miles said at a news conference.

“I’m the victim of an anti-abortion campaign,” said Durante, who now works without malpractice insurance.

St. Paul, which insures 31,000 physicians and 1,500 hospitals nationwide and is the country’s largest private provider of medical malpractice coverage, said it could not comment on Durante’s case but it defended its policy decisions.

“Our business is to provide medical liability insurance to health care providers,” said spokeswoman Beth Hamel. “We don’t let personal beliefs or individual moral judgments enter into the decision-making.”

Hamel said the firm does not ask those seeking insurance whether they perform abortions, except if they are smaller clinics whose primary work is performing abortions. In those cases, she said, St. Paul must consider that such clinics “have been the target of violence” which could result in serious injury and, thus, significant claims against the company.

Durante, 60, said his Women’s Health Center is still operating, although “precariously.” The cancellation of his insurance prompted the loss of his staff privileges at two Coachella Valley hospitals, he said.

He still performs abortions in his clinic but must rely on his medical partner--who still has insurance--to handle complications requiring hospitalization, Durante said. He carries no insurance because the only policy he has been offered--a high-risk policy from another firm at $93,000 a year--is unaffordable, Durante said.

After covering Durante for a year, St. Paul warned him in March of 1985 that he would be terminated unless he stopped doing abortions, he said. He lost his coverage in August of the same year, although he never filed a claim with the company and had never been the target of a successful malpractice suit, he said.

He said John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Indio investigated him around that time on charges of incompetent medical practices but cited only his lack of insurance when it terminated his staff privileges. Kennedy officials could not be reached for comment. Desert Hospital in Palm Springs dropped him from the staff because he had no insurance, he said. A Desert Hospital spokesman refused to confirm that.

Durante’s lawyer, Susan McGreivy, said his lawsuit suffered a blow Monday when U.S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts dismissed conspiracy, civil rights and racketeering claims against St. Paul, holding that the firm’s refusal to cover Durante was not discriminatory. The only remaining part of the lawsuit is a breach-of-contract claim against St. Paul, she said.