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Does your community hospital provide services like abortion, birth control counseling, or even emergency contraception after rape? How about voluntary sterilization or infertility treatments? Will your hospital honor the wishes of yourself or your spouse to have recussitation efforts stopped or life support withdrawn? Even if you have a legally valid living will?
Probably not, if the hospital is Catholic. But what you might not realize is that even if your community hospital is nonsectarian, it still won't provide those services if it is in any way affiliated or has merged with any Catholic organization. What exactly does this mean for you and your family?
Who Cares?
The basic situation is that the nearly 600 Catholic hospitals in America are
governed by rules prescribed by the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. These
doctrines are in turn created by religious leaders in the Vatican, far from the
immediate needs and situations of the people affected. Does it matter? Besides
the fact that communities are losing important and legal health care options,
serious questions about the separation of church and state are raised. These
Catholic hospitals might be privately controlled by the Catholic Church, but they
also received funding and support from the government. It seems unconscionable
that the government would financially support restrictions on people's legal
choices.
Reproductive Services
In ostensibly or formerly secular institutions which have merger agreements with
Catholic institutions, contraception counseling and the dispensing of birth control
pills or devices are not allowed. Can this have traumatic effects on patients?
Absolutely.
Abortion
Whether or not abortion may be permitted if the life of the mother is threatened
is questionable because this directive does not explicitly allow for it.
End of Life Services
While the burden of these restrictions has largely fallen on women, men do not
escape unscathed - Catholic limitations on our health care also exist at the end
of life and whenever we are ill.
Church and State
How is it possible for religious organizations to receive public funding and then
deny legal health services to the public? Because Congress has granted them
exceptions - starting with a "conscience clause" enacted in 1973 which
permitted health-care organizations to refuse to provide certain services like
abortion or sterilization if those services violated religious or moral
convictions.
Effects on Doctors
Even non-Catholic doctors working at a non-Catholic hospital suddenly find
themselves under severe restrictions when their institution merges with a
Catholic hospital.
Conclusion
Religious freedom means that Catholic hospitals must choose: government funding
and support or the imposition of Catholic doctrines on patients and employees.
They can't have both!
