Posted on 11/16/2005 2:00:47 PM PST by victim soul
Religiously run hospitals are now in the crosshairs of the abortion provider.
A new call to action from Planned Parenthood is hoping to frighten women with the rising number of hospitals run by faith-based organizations, many of which refuse to offer abortion services. According to the abortion provider, women are in danger of losing their “right” to reproductive services if they don’t step up and oppose mergers between community hospitals and faith-based healthcare providers. Those providers are usually Catholic, 7th Day Adventist and Baptist.
“Planned Parenthood isn’t content with getting all the abortions they want in secular hospitals, now they want to demand that religious hospitals perform abortions as well. They want to take us down with them and make everybody violate their morals and their religion in this quest for abortion and contraception on demand everywhere.”
That’s Kiera McCaffrey, Director of Communications for the Catholic League.
“It’s not about saying, ‘Let’s get everyone to a Catholic hospital or a Baptist hospital so that we can make them one of us or things like that, it’s about seeing a need and helping.”
Far from being “dangerous,” faith-based healthcare providers offer much to the communities they serve including aid to the poor and uninsured. Deirdre McQuade is with the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“The services that they provide in their whole integrity, they care for the person not only as a physical body, but as a whole person.”
McQuade says surveys indicate 86% of the hospitals in the United States do not perform abortions; of those that do, they report only a handful of the procedures every year. Frances Kissling, President of Catholics for a Free Choice, a pro-abortion group quoted in the report, did not return calls for comment.
Dangers of Hospital Mergers
by Molly M. Ginty 11.10.05 http://www.plannedparenthood.org/pp2/portal/files/portal/webzine/newspoliticsactivism/fean-051110-hospital-mergers.xml
In New Hampshire, a woman could not get an emergency abortion at her local hospital when her amniotic sac broke at 14 weeks of pregnancy, even though the fetus had no chance of survival and the woman faced a life-threatening infection. Her physician was forced to put her in a cab and send her 80 miles to the nearest hospital that would allow termination of her pregnancy.
In Illinois, a patient diagnosed with a dangerous ectopic pregnancy was sent from a community hospital to seek care elsewhere, despite the risk of injury and death.
"Many Catholic hospitals test the rape victim to see if she is ovulating, and if she is, they refuse to give her emergency contraception."
In California, a woman could not get her tubes tied immediately after giving birth to her ninth child because sterilizations were no longer allowed at the only hospital in town.
Stories like these have become more common in recent years, as community hospitals have merged with religiously sponsored hospitals that use doctrine to restrict women's access to reproductive health care.
Today, one in five hospital beds in the United States are owned by religious entities. Some of these religious organizations — particularly Baptist, Catholic, and Seventh-Day Adventist groups — ban or limit reproductive services. For the women treated at these institutions, that can mean no access to abortion, contraception, fertility treatment, or other vital reproductive health care.
Money Matters
Financial pressures from HMOs and government cost-cutting have forced more community hospitals to merge with or join large health systems. In search of financial stability, city and county governments have also contracted with private health systems to operate their facilities. Such mergers and hospital management arrangements often are bad news for local health consumers, because they can lead to elimination of services.
Women can be harmed when one of the merging hospitals operates under religious doctrine — and insists that the newly merged entity follow such doctrine. According to the New York-based MergerWatch, an estimated 200 mergers between sectarian and non-sectarian hospitals have occurred in the United States since 1990.
Though many of these unions took place in the 1990s, they still threaten women's health care today. Earlier this month, Modern Healthcare, an industry magazine, suggested another wave of mergers was on the horizon. According to the Washington-based Catholics for a Free Choice, half of hospitals affected by Catholic mergers have eliminated reproductive services and continue denying these services to women even though respected medical organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, object to such restrictions.
Catholic Health Care Restrictions
Catholic hospitals operate under the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, guidelines approved by the Vatican that forbid medical procedures that contradict church teaching. The Directives bar abortion, birth control pills, condoms, in vitro fertilization, artificial insemination, family planning counseling, and other key reproductive health services — even for patients who are not Catholic or who have no objection to these services.
In cases of sexual assault, the Directives do permit Catholic hospitals to give women emergency contraception pills, which are up to 89 percent effective at preventing pregnancy if taken 72 hours after unprotected sex. "But many Catholic hospitals test the rape victim to see if she is ovulating, and if she is, they refuse to give her emergency contraception," says Jill Morrison, senior counsel at the Washington-based National Women's Law Center. Since the risk of pregnancy is highest around ovulation, if a woman actually needs emergency contraception to prevent unintended pregnancy, she can't get it.
Why Care?
If your hospital is non-denominational or you think your access to health services is secure, why should you care about religious hospital mergers?
The services you need could be taken away. In 1998, after Doctors Hospital in Little Rock, AR, merged with nearby St. Vincent's Hospital, the resulting entity — St. Vincent's Doctors Hospital — allowed women who gave birth there to continue getting post-partum tubal ligations (sterilization performed immediately following the birth) under a special arrangement.
In a leased space within the new hospital, independent doctors sterilized women who didn't want more children or who suffered from preeclampsia, in which blood pressure spikes so high that subsequent pregnancies can be life-threatening. But in 1999, Vatican officials stepped in and ended the arrangement because it was in "violation" of Catholic principles. Though sterilization is the most common form of contraception used by American women, the Directives hold that the procedure is "intrinsically evil."
Mergers can creep up on patients unexpectedly. Take Scripps Memorial Hospital in Chula Vista, CA, which merged with a local Catholic hospital in October 2004 without alerting the public. Community activists were also not informed. Nor were the hospital's doctors, who became aware of the merger's consequences only when they applied to renew their admitting privileges and were told they now had to follow the Directives. Heath advocates fear there could be more "sneak mergers" like this one.
Even if you don't go to a hospital constrained by religious doctrine, your tax money does. According to a 2002 MergerWatch study, hospitals with religious affiliations receive more than $45 billion in public funds each year, with half of their revenues coming from Medicare, Medicaid, and other government programs.
Even if you have access to contraception and reproductive care, other women do not. Since a quarter of religiously sponsored hospitals are in rural areas, these facilities are often the only ones within driving distance — and the only ones to which women can turn in medical emergencies. For women who are poor, uninsured, or underinsured, religiously run hospitals are often the only sources of available care.
What You Can Do
Health advocates say you should start by asking questions. "First, meet with your doctor," says Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice. "Ask 'Where do you practice medicine? Is that a Catholic hospital or affiliated with one? Are there any services you don't provide? And if I need to go to the hospital, where do you have admitting privileges and does that hospital restrict any services?'"
Next, reach out to MergerWatch to fight proposed mergers in your area. "We've helped 52 communities in 25 states face proposed religious hospital mergers," says Lois Uttley, the organization's director. "We defeated 19 of these proposals and forged compromises in 15 other cases that saved at least some threatened services. We have also unraveled eight existing mergers that were detrimental to reproductive health."
At Brackenridge Hospital in Austin, TX, MergerWatch helped health advocates (including Planned Parenthood of the Texas Capital Region) create a separate "hospital within a hospital" on the fifth floor of the city-owned facility so patients could continue getting tubal ligations and emergency contraception. The rest of the hospital was managed by a Catholic health system under contract with the city.
According to a survey by Catholics for a Free Choice, 85 percent of American women believe publicly funded Catholic hospitals should not be allowed to restrict women's health care. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 74 percent of women receive reproductive and contraceptive services. To make sure you remain one of them, know the facts about hospital mergers — and fight for services that are essential to your health.
Molly M. Ginty is a freelance writer living in New York City.
© 2005 Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. All rights reserved.
Perhaps PP would like to open some full care hospitals of their own. Find out just how many people support them.
I don't have a problem with this, since the term "publicly-funded Catholic hospital" is an oxymoron by definition.
Ping.
Not her again! This is one woman funded by the Ford Foundation. And she ain't no Catholic.
And well they might...
Those "Catholics for a Free Choice" should hie themselves off to some other church where anything goes. I can think of several denominations. For them to expect the church to change to accomodate them is the height of selfishness.
The Catholic hospitals that I've ever been to have been wonderfully welcoming places. If given the equivalent choice I'd always choose a Catholic hospital, even if just so that I can say hi to "Sister Mary Lobby", which is the term of endearment used by a Catholic hospital that I have the most experience with, in reference to the beautiful Nun who was an icon for decades in the lobby.
When we lost our last commercial hospital in this area, the only remaining hospital was a Catholic one (supported via endowment). The local chapter of the ACLU wanted the Catholic hospital to agree to provide abortion services or they were not going to allow the commercial hospital to close it's doors. The single most important health issue to liberals is access to services to erase their sexual misdeeds.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Is it really? If you live in Alberta, you should know that several hospitals are Catholic, and are provincially funded.
There, fixed.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
There's another name for a Catholic who supports abortion.....Episcopalian.
I don't think they've got the support they would need to run a hospital. They can only manipulate government funds like this:
"We've helped 52 communities in 25 states face proposed religious hospital mergers," says Lois Uttley, the organization's director. "We defeated 19 of these proposals and forged compromises in 15 other cases that saved at least some threatened services. We have also unraveled eight existing mergers that were detrimental to reproductive health."
At Brackenridge Hospital in Austin, TX, MergerWatch helped health advocates (including Planned Parenthood of the Texas Capital Region) create a separate "hospital within a hospital" on the fifth floor of the city-owned facility so patients could continue getting tubal ligations and emergency contraception. The rest of the hospital was managed by a Catholic health system under contract with the city.
Catholic hospitals, like every other hospital in this country, rely on taxpayer dollars for their financial survival. As long as they're doing that, they should be required to provide all legal medical procedures that patients request. Anytime they want to start living on their own dime, they should be free to impose whatever restrictions they want. I won't be holding my breath for that, though, since the Catholic Church in the U.S. has driven itself into financial ruin by aiding and abetting pedophile priests in their illegal and immoral activities, and doesn't have much left over to fund things like faith-compliant medical facilities.
Not even Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, eggs, sausage, and Spam for breakfast!
Waaaaah!
My masticatory choice rights are being violated!
Since it's an 'emanation from the penumbra' of the Constitution it's always in danger of evaporating.
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