How Religious Hospitals Block Access to Reproductive Care—Even in ‘Safe Haven’ States

10/5/2023
by REBECCA GIBRON

Most of us do not want a stranger’s ideology controlling our futures. If you live in a “blue” or “abortion haven” state, you may feel protected from abortion bans, but the truth is, your healthcare may be limited by the religious interests directing your local hospital.

Growing up in a religiously conservative family and now living in Idaho, I know how it feels to be hemmed in by someone else’s dogma. As CEO of the largest Planned Parenthood affiliate in the country covering three “abortion haven” states and three states with extremist-backed abortion bans, I have a unique vantage point: I see the stark differences between them and troubling similarities threatening patients’ access to healthcare.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/10/05/religious-hospitals-abortion/

USA – Worried about abortion laws? Catholic hospital mergers also seen as threat to women’s health care

Worried about abortion laws? Catholic hospital mergers also seen as threat to women's health care

Rikha Sharma Rani
Dec 27, 2019

In 1995, Lois Uttley was working as a reproductive rights advocate in New York when the merger of two hospitals in Troy, a city near Albany, caught her off-guard.

One was secular, the other, Catholic. The secular hospital agreed to abide by rules written by Catholic bishops banning certain procedures deemed “immoral” by the church, like abortion, contraception, in-vitro fertilization and tubal ligation.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/12/27/worried-abortion-laws-more-catholic-hospitals-also-seen-threat/4269242002/

USA – For Doctors Who Want To Provide Abortions, Employment Contracts Often Tie Their Hands

For Doctors Who Want To Provide Abortions, Employment Contracts Often Tie Their Hands

November 26, 2018
Mara Gordon

Doctors who are opposed to abortions don't have to provide them. Since the 1970s, a series of federal rules have provided clinicians with "conscience protections" that help them keep their jobs if they don't want to perform or assist with the procedure.

Religious hospitals are also protected. Catholic health care systems, for example, are protected if they choose not to provide abortions or sterilizations. Doctors who work for religious hospitals usually sign contracts that they'll uphold religious values in their work.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/11/26/668347657/for-doctors-who-want-to-provide-abortions-employment-contracts-often-tie-their-h

USA: As Catholic systems grow by acquiring other hospitals, abortions plummet

As Catholic systems grow by acquiring other hospitals, abortions plummet

By Steven Ross Johnson | September 14, 2017

Inpatient abortions and other reproductive health services prohibited by Catholic hospitals' religious directives are being performed significantly less often as more hospitals become Catholic-affiliated, according to a new study.

The National Bureau of Economic Research examined Catholic hospitals across six states and found per-bed annual rates of inpatient abortions dropped by 30%. Rates of sterilization via tubal ligation also decreased by 31%.

Continued at source: Modern Healthcare: http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20170914/NEWS/170919931