Abortion rights in WA fall into limbo at religious hospitals

[cbabe]

Abortion rights in WA fall into limbo at religious hospitals

https://crosscut.com/news/2022/06/abortion-rights-wa-fall-limbo-religious-hospitals

Abortion rights in WA fall into limbo at religious hospitals

When hospitals merge with religious institutions, it weakens Washington's capacity to provide abortion care. What will that mean after Roe v. Wade?

by Megan Burbank / June 13, 2022

Recent mergers in Washington state between religious and secular hospital systems, including one between Virginia Mason and Catholic CHI Franciscan Health in 2021, have allowed hospitals to stop providing elective abortions, even though they are a protected right in the state.

…

With the U.S. Supreme Court expected to overturn Roe v. Wade this month, Washington state, a longstanding haven for abortion care, is positioning itself as a sanctuary for an influx of out-of-state patients. But abortion access is already out of reach in some parts of the Northwest — especially in communities where Catholic hospitals proliferate.

For years, religiously affiliated hospitals have merged with secular health care systems, often with disruptions to services like reproductive health care. About half of health care systems in Washington are affiliated with religious organizations, which means that even with state-level and national protections for abortion, hospitals in Washington can deny or restrict reproductive health care based on religious protocols.

The result is a patchwork of reproductive health policies that vary by hospital, and can leave patients confused or without care altogether.

…more…

Note: Providence, Swedish, and numerous small regional hospitals now under Catholic Church control.

[in2herbs]

1. Then those hospitals should be denied access to all medicines that

appear on the list that's floating around the internet for people claiming religious exemptions to have to give up.

Bring back the nuns in these hospitals to be the nursing and other care-giving staff.