NorCal Catholic Hospital’s Refusal To Sterilize Woman Could Bring Statewide Legal Response

[trotsky]

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/08/24/catholic-norcal-hospital-refusing-to-sterilize-woman-could-bring-on-state-wide-legal-attack/

A Northern California hospital’s refusal to sterilize a woman because it violates Catholic principles could be challenged in court in a case with broad impacts for other religious-based hospitals across the state.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports Rachel Miller of Redding, who is due to have would would be her last child in September, said she was shocked when Mercy Medical Center in Redding refused to perform tubal ligation, also known as “tying the tubes.”

“I have no problem with people practicing their religion,” Miller told the San Francisco Chronicle. “But because there are so many Catholic hospitals, especially in the north state where I live, it leaves women with very little choice.”

I sincerely hope it brings a legal response, and a huge smackdown to the Catholic Church for trying to limit healthcare choices and treatment options for everyone! This is a problem that keeps getting worse - time to stop it.

[Warpy]

1. I would love to see them have to choose between offering a full range of care

and shutting down their highest profit OB-Gyn departments completely. JCAHO should have addressed this one ages ago and refused accreditation, but they were too wimpy and afraid.

I think we'd see a lot of those hospitals up for sale, fast.

[edhopper]

2. This is their plan

[Angry Dragon]

3. It just amazes me when a religion wants to open a business and then

they want their religion to trump all business rules

[cleanhippie]

4. And yet we STILL have DU'ers advocating for and defending the RCC.

[trotsky]

5. Well ya know, it's too bad this woman can't just get her tubal ligation at the drugstore.

Like the rest of us do.

[cleanhippie]

7. And speak of the devil...

Looks like I have a stalker.

[rug]

6. That's because they're not suckers for two-dimensional bigotry.

[Angry Dragon]

15. ?????????????????

[cleanhippie]

17. Exactly.

Personal attacks are all he has left.

[beam me up scottie]

8. Because the Church is the victim in their eyes.

They care more about hurt fee fees than women's rights.

[Warren Stupidity]

11. Ah I see the Defenders of the Faith have determined that reporting this perfidy is itself an act of

bigotry. I was confused before. Now I see the light.

[beam me up scottie]

12. At least they're consistent.

Wouldn't want to cofuse anyone by speaking up for our rights.

[Lordquinton]

19. Some people are so invested that they have to

Even resorting to repeating lies to make the people they defend seem less bad in comparison. Shouting bigotry when their sacred cow is exposed for having discrimination built into it's core doctrine.

"Faith" let's some defend hyper conservative, definition of right wing groups on progressive message boards.

[cleanhippie]

20. Indeed. "Faith" seems to be used more as an excuse than a virtue anymore.

Not that "faith" ever really was a virtue.

[Dawson Leery]

9. The RCC needs to be swatted down!

[Warren Stupidity]

10. I'm pretty sure that their refusal has nothing to do with religion despite the fact

that they are using religion as a justification for why they are refusing to provide this service. I just don't know why. Perhaps somebody will be along to 'splain it.

[AtheistCrusader]

13. Simple fix. Revoke all licenses to practice any sort of medicine for all

Religious hospitals that attempt to refuse care by placing the religious ooga booga of the practitioner before the needs of the patient.

[trotsky]

14. UPDATE: Catholic hospital backs down on tubal ligation refusal

http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Catholic-hospital-backs-down-on-tubal-ligation-6463205.php

Mercy Medical Center, owned by Dignity Health of San Francisco, the state’s largest private health care company, had previously refused to allow Rachel Miller to undergo a tubal ligation, citing Catholic hospitals’ Ethical and Religious Directives against sterilization.

After attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union said they would file a discrimination suit if Miller was being denied pregnancy-based care” on religious grounds, the hospital notified her doctor that it was reconsidering based on additional information the physician had provided. On Monday, the deadline the lawyers had set for a response, the ACLU said Mercy Medical Center had agreed to the surgery.

That solves Miller’s problem, said ACLU attorney Elizabeth Gill, but it won’t avoid a future legal confrontation unless the hospital chain changes its policy.

“That’s great that they are willing to do that for some women,” Gill said. But Miller, she said, “is just one of many women who risk being denied care because Catholic bishops are telling medical professionals how to operate.”

Good news, but THE BATTLE IS NOT OVER. The religious cannot be able to force others to live by their rules.

[Humanist_Activist]

16. That's good news, but it still illustrates why religious organizations should NOT be running any...

service that serves the public. They always have strings attached and hoops to jump through that have nothing to do with the service provided. I don't even care if its as mundane as trash collection.

[cleanhippie]

18. Good news, but we have to keep the RCC bigotry and misogyny from being swept under the rug.