ACLU Calls for Investigation into Catholic Hospitals Over Prohibitions on Reproductive Healthcare

[icymist]

Just over 40 percent of all patient beds in Washington state are in Catholic hospitals, and many of them prohibit their personnel from providing a range of reproductive health services for religious reasons, according to a new report by the ACLU.

"When a pregnant woman seeks medical care at a hospital," said ACLU of Washington Executive Director Kathleen Taylor, "she should be able to trust that decisions about her treatment will be based on medicine, not religious policies."

As Cienna Madrid explained in The Stranger back in 2013, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops maintain a set of "Ethical and Religious Directives" that govern Catholic hospitals—including, for example, Providence hospitals in Washington—and bar them from offering services including contraception, sterilization, and abortion.

http://www.thestranger.com/slog/2016/05/10/24066681/aclu-calls-for-investigation-of-catholic-hospitals-over-prohibitions-on-reproductive-healthcare?mc_cid=c96c4f58d1&mc_eid=8915d78ecb

[Wounded Bear]

1. K & R ......for visibility..

This is an ongoing problem in my state, as the Catholic church continues to gobble up our medical care.

for religionistas of all stripes.

[icymist]

2. Same here.

I live out on the peninsula where there are no other options unless I travel across the sound to Seattle. Even those hospitals are getting gobbled up by the RC church. Even the nursing homes out here are beginning to be dictated what they may and may not do. It's RC dogma first and healthcare second. And on the public's tax dollars.

[icymist]

3. Here's a little more reading on the subject from Forbes:

Healthcare Denied At 550 Hospitals Because Of Catholic Doctrine

<snip>
Physicians at Catholic hospitals have to agree to abide by the ERDs as a condition of obtaining privileges. Depending in part on the whim of the local bishop, this could include gag rules prohibiting counseling a patient or referring a patient to a place that would provide necessary services.

In Washington state, data shows that 40% of all hospital beds are in a Catholic hospital. There is no other option for care in entire regions. This is especially true in rural regions, and it is frightening when the only access to healthcare is dictated by someone else’s religious doctrine, rather than medical science.

For example, San Juan Island developed an affiliation with PeaceHealth, a Catholic health system. Now women on the island can’t get necessary reproductive care, a problem on other islands as well. There has been little detail available as to what compromises to patient care and autonomy the University of Washington made when it, too, affiliated with PeaceHealth. Washington’s Swedish Medical Center stopped doing abortions and closed its hospice after making a similar affiliation.

While these reports focused on restricted access to reproductive care, the Catholic directives also may interfere with end-of-life decision-making. Living wills may not be honored if they conflict with the ERDs—but you are likely not to know that before a crisis. Washington state, like Oregon, has a Death With Dignity law which allows “terminally ill adults to request and self-administer lethal medications prescribed by a physician.” But staff may be prohibited from speaking about Death With Dignity options, or from referring patients to organizations that can help provide that option.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/judystone/2016/05/07/health-care-denied-at-550-hospitals-because-of-catholic-doctrine/#6d6864f11bb3

[Drahthaardogs]

5. It is obviously not "our" medical care

It is the Catholic Church's medical care. They have the right to outlaw procedures against their religion. I find that argument poor. Now if you want to say that they should not be allowed to accept Medicare payments, I think you might be onto something.

[icymist]

7. Do you not understand that some people have to travel great lengths to find a hospital that isn't

under Catholic directives? Entire communities have no other alternative.

[Drahthaardogs]

9. It does not matter.

It is THEIR hospital.If the only school close by was a Catholic school would you make the same argument? Would it have merit?

[icymist]

11. Well, the ACLU thinks otherwise.

eom

[SickOfTheOnePct]

16. So deny the Medicre and Medicaid funding

Yes, many if not most Catholic hospitals will then shut down, but I have no problem with that.

[Major Nikon]

8. Catholic hospitals couldn't operate without Medicare and Medicaid funding

At least not at anything approaching their current levels.

Denying government funding unless hospitals meet certain standards of care is exactly what the ACLU is recommending.

[Drahthaardogs]

10. Yep. And they should.

Government funding = government rules.

[AllyCat]

12. Money talks. Hope this works.

[ananda]

4. In Austin it's Seton.

A horrible organization.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

6. The Catholic Church should just get out of the hospital business n/t

[WillowTree]

13. And then all of the people in areas that don't have any other hospital can go.......where?

[SickOfTheOnePct]

14. Someone will come in to take over the hospitals n/t

[Jeffersons Ghost]

15. Is this a trickle-down hospital concept?

[SickOfTheOnePct]

17. Nope

It's the follow the standard of care or lose federal payments concept.

Catholic hospitals can't be forced to stay open - they can choose to follow the rules or lose their federal funding stream and shut down.

[WillowTree]

18. And while those people are waiting for someone to swoop in.......

.......and take over those hospitals, they'll need to go.......where.......for emergency treatment?

But don't be too sure that those White Knights will show up. The alternative to Catholic hospitals are more often than not for-profit hospital corporations, who may not be interested in setting up shop in a lot of those less-than-metropolitan areas.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

19. I see your point

But a church can't be forced to keep hospitals open and provide services that violate their religious beliefs. If forced to do so, they'll most likely choose to shut down, and it is well within their right to do so.

As they're receiving federal payments, they should have to provide services that comply with the standards of care.

[icymist]

20. Those "less-than-metropolitan areas" you're talking about are places like Seattle,

Bremerton, and other densely populated area in the Puget Sound. All these hospitals have been bought up or gone into partnership with the Catholic Church, some recently.

[CharlotteVale]

21. The Catholic Church is dangerous to women.

[icymist]

22. And the LGBT community. And those with living wills to Right To Die in states where that

is legal. And so on and so on...