FAITH-BASED MEDICINE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD
THE STORY OF BELLA
where it started
While on a medical mission in the high Andes Mountains of Peru, mother and daughter nurse practitioners, Dede Chism and Abby Sinnett, received the inspiration for Bella Health + Wellness.
Dede and Abby became convicted that everyone has a story, every life should be protected, and every person deserves to know they are made good. They recognized that “poverty of spirit” was not just found in missions far away, but in the exam rooms of patients seeking treatment in the United States.
The problem was - places to practice dignified, life-affirming health care were scarce. And in their chosen field, Obstetrics and Gynecology, virtually non-extant. And so, with courage, Dede and Abby began to assemble funding and a team.
faith-based nonprofit
Bella operates with the blessing of Archbishop Samuel Aquila of the Archdiocese of Denver.
A faith-based, LIFE-AFFIRMING OB-GYN
In December of 2014, they opened the first comprehensive, life-affirming OB-GYN practice in the state of Colorado. “Bella Natural Women’s Care” began treating patients from a clinic in Englewood.
While opening with the guidance and blessing of the Archbishop of Denver, the collective discernment was to operate without direct funding from the Catholic Church. (Even today, Bella is responsible for all its own funding.)
The idea was that independence would allow Bella to pioneer a Catholic clinic model that, if sustainable, could be replicated and shared throughout the United States.
life-affirming obstetrical care
Women deserve medical care that honors life and works in cooperation with the innate brilliance of the human design.
new MISSION partnersHIPS
Over time, while always focused on the mission work happening in the exam rooms of 180 E. Hampden, Bella began partnering with other for-life groups, like Marisol Health Services in Denver and Lafayette. The idea was to bring the first full continuum of care to Colorado, with Bella’s medical services complementing Catholic Charities social service offerings.
Although the two groups remain separately funded and governed, they have proven that the best response to entities like Planned Parenthood is comprehensive health care at every stage of life. This model is guiding the development of new Pro-Life work across the United States.
full medical services at catholic charities
Although separately funded and governed, Bella provides the medical services and Catholic Charities the social services at Marisol Health Clinics.
THE FULL CONTINUUM OF CARE - FAMILY MEDICINE & pediatrics
In 2018, men and children also began receiving care at Bella, with full Family Medicine / Primary Care instituted in 2020 under a new mission name, Bella Health + Wellness. This allowed Bella to wrap the medical arms of dignified medicine around the every member of the family.
In 2021, Bella became an international hub for dignity, allowing the world’s leading life-affirming provider for care for people with Down Syndrome out of Paris, France, to “plant its flag” in the United States through a partnership with Bella.
The goal - to ensure the United States does not go the way of our European neighbors, with Down Syndrome children and others with special needs boastfully “eradicated” through abortion and medical eugenics.
bella family medicine
Dignified health care is now available for men, women, and children through Bella’s primary care offerings.
MEDICAL CONSCIENCE & THE RIGHT TO EQUAL REIMBURSEMENTS
Today, Bella is on the forefront of the medical conscience debate.
At this moment, only four states protect by law a medical provider’s right to refuse to perform procedures or administer medications that violate their conscience. Colorado is not among them.
But it’s one thing to be free to practice according to conscience. It’s quite another to fund the model.
Today, especially in obstetrics and gynecology, the health care system is designed to reimburse handsomely abortion, sterilization, in vitro fertilization, and artificial birth control. Whereas a couple hoping to conceive through IVF might spend as much as $25,000 per treatment, natural reproductive centers like Bella offering NaPRO Robotic surgery might receive $800.
The model simply isn’t financially sustainable on its own. It’s like showing up to a baseball game, hoping to win, but heading to the batting mound without a bat.
And so, we battle for the right for life-affirming health care centers to even exist.
faith-based clinics have the right to exist
Only four states protect a provider’s right to medical conscience. Not one insurance company reimburses equally for natural reproductive health care.
THE CALL TO HEAL MIRRORS THE MASTER
When John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask Jesus if he was the One he’d been waiting for, Jesus said very little. He simply began to heal. If a full 21 percent of the gospels show Jesus laying on hands, tending to the broken of body, mind, and spirit, we, too, must heal.
jesus taught us to heal
Often, it is through the laying of of hands on the body that we are able to touch the soul.
have you been chosen to fight?
This fight for dignity depends on the courage of life-affirming providers to step into work in mission and on the conviction of donors to wade into the battle beside us.
Although Bella is able to generate 75 percent of its operating budget through patient income (payment for services), the “mission gap” of reproductive healthcare reimbursements means 25 percent must be fundraised.
If you believe that every person should have access to life-affirming health care. If you agree that medical providers should have the right to practice according to conscience and that insurance companies should be expected to reimburse natural reproductive medicine equally - then perhaps the Lord has chosen you to join us on the field.
As we say to new members of our team, welcome to mission.
medicine with a mission
Founders and Nurse Practitioners Dede Chism and Abby Sinnett refuse to accept that quality health care can’t also be guided by medical conscience.