Founder of Franciscan FertilityCare receives archdiocese’s Respect Life award

Dr. Michael Padilla, center, smiles with his family in SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis after receiving the archdiocese’s Archbishop O’Meara Respect Life Award during the Respect Life Mass on Oct. 2. Among those posing with him are his wife Dana (holding their son Gabe) their daughter Mary Elise (holding the award) and his parents Lourdes and Mike Padilla, third from right and far right, respectively. (Photo by Natalie Hoefer)

By Natalie Hoefer

In a moment of deja vu, Dr. Michael Padilla walked up the steps of the sanctuary of SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis on Oct. 2 to receive an archdiocese’s pro-life award from the archbishop.

The same scene took place 15 years prior. Except then he was in high school, the prelate was Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein and the honor was the Our Lady of Guadalupe Pro-Life Youth Award.

This time, Padilla received the Archbishop Edward T. O’Meara Respect Life Award from Archbishop Charles C. Thompson.

(Related story: ‘Rejoice in hope’ but ‘remain vigilant,’ archbishop says at Respect Life Mass)

Padilla said he received his first award in 2007 “for being active in 40 Days for Life, and I did a project at my school that picked apart Planned Parenthood.”

This year, his list of accomplishments earning him an award is much longer.

Foremost is founding the Franciscan FertiltiyCare Center along with registered nurse Marilyn Haywood. The Center is part of the Franciscan Health network in Indianapolis, a year ago. He also serves as medical director for the center.

As she introduced Padilla, Brie Anne Varick noted that he “worked for years to start” the Franciscan FertilityCare Center, which is “one of the only hospital-based Creighton fertility clinics in the country.” Varick is director of the archdiocesan Office of Human Life and Dignity, which sponsors the pro-life awards.

By using the Creighton Method of Natural Family Planning and NaproTechnology, she said, Padilla “works with couples who are struggling with infertility and provides alternatives to in vitro fertilization, giving hope to couples as well as respecting God’s design for fertility and creating life.”

The accomplishments don’t stop there for Padilla, who, with his wife and two children, is a member of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Indianapolis.

He has also been trained in the abortion pill reversal method and serves as the medical director for the Gabriel Project’s mobile ultrasound unit.

Padilla also serves as president for the Catholic Medical Association’s St. Raphael Guild of Indianapolis. In this role, said Varick, he “takes on the formation of Catholic doctors so these physicians are able to truly respect and uphold the dignity of all their patients.”

Padilla has also testified at the Indiana State House regarding abortion-related legislation, spoken at pro-life events and, with his wife Dana, presented at marriage retreats on fertility issues and being open to life.

Padilla credits his pro-life passion to the witness of his parents, who immigrated from the Philippines in the late 1980s.

“It started when my parents became Gabriel [Project] angels at St. Bartholomew” Parish in Columbus, he said. Gabriel “angels” help mothers in unplanned pregnancies carry their babies to term. “As immigrants, they both felt like so much had been done for them and wanted to give back to people in need. They basically just opened our doors to women who needed a place to live to carry their babies to term.”

As he made his way through medical school at Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine at Midwestern University, Padilla realized “I am a doctor because of the pro-life movement.

“Being pro-life, my experience with women in need drove me to be a doctor, but seeing in a more intentional way how much we do a disservice to women in medicine—as a country, as a society, but especially in medicine.”

Padilla strongly believes that “women should get to be moms if they want to be moms,” he said.

“A lot of women come to my mind who said as they had an abortion or after they took the [abortion] pill that they felt like they didn’t have a choice and then regretted their decision. Even in the face of feeling like they didn’t have a choice, their heart still desired for them to be the mom they knew they could be.”

Despite all Padilla’s medical and pro-life activities, the person who nominated him for the award said his “most important roles are as a son of God, a husband and a father … [who] commits himself to daily prayer, frequent confession and receiving the Eucharist.

“With all of the incredible work that he does for his patients, the Church and the city of Indianapolis, he continues to put God and family first.”

He said he was surprised to receive the award, but even more surprised that “someone knew all the things I was doing. Some people know part of it, but not even my parents know about all I do.”

So, it made sense when he learned that it was his wife Dana who nominated him.

“Being a pro-life physician, in every way, is rare these days,” she wrote. “We are blessed to have Dr. Mikey Padilla at our parish and in our archdiocese. …

“But,” she added, “I might be biased!”
 

(For more information on Franciscan FertilityCare Center, go to cutt.ly/FranciscanFertilityCare.) †