41 THOUSAND doctors step up
Finally!!
41,000 Doctors to Join Lawsuit Against Catholic Hospital Over Denial of Care
It’s about fucking time.
Religious directives, written by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, forbid doctors at Catholic facilities [to provide] birth control and [perform] common reproductive health procedures.
Even when that could mean the death of the woman. An incomplete miscarriage with its risk of deadly infection? Too bad, must wait until there is no fetal pulse. If the woman develops a raging infection before the pulse stops, that’s just too damn bad, according to the loathsome USCCB. Bishops have ordered hospitals and medical conglomerates not to perform abortions in such circumstances. Not requested, not begged, but ordered.
California’s largest medical association will join a lawsuit against the state’s largest hospital system for using religious directives to deny basic reproductive health care to patients.
The 41,000-member California Medical Association (CMA) filed a motion Wednesday in state Superior Court to join an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawsuit against the Catholic hospital chain Dignity Health, the fifth largest health-care system in the country.
Oh yeah – that’s fantastic news. I’ve been waiting for that to happen.
The ACLU lawsuit stems from the case of a Dignity Health patient who was denied a tubal ligation. The patient’s physician agreed to perform the procedure during her cesarean section, but the hospital refused the doctor’s request, citing religious directives written by Catholic bishops that classify sterilization as “intrinsically evil.”
Notice how grotesque that is. Catholic bishops get to veto a medical decision and the patient’s wishes, because of a stupid empty theological boogieword.
The ACLU of Northern California and the law firm of Covington & Burling LLP in December filed the lawsuit on behalf of the patient, Rebecca Chamorro, and Physicians for Reproductive Health.
The plaintiffs argue that forcing doctors to deny basic health care on the basis of religious objections creates a conflict between the medical well-being of patients and the directives of the Catholic hospital system. They also contend that withholding medical care for reasons unrelated to medicine is illegal in California.
Many other states have that Nixon-era exemption, thanks to John Haldeman, a Christian scientist.
Dignity Health operates 29 hospitals across California. Nationally, ten of the 25 largest hospital systems are Catholic sponsored, according to a statement released by the ACLU. One in nine hospital beds is in a Catholic facility.
Which is terrifying. In Seattle they’re all Catholic except for University Hospital.
“Patients and their physicians, not hospital administrators following religious or any other non-medical directives, should be the primary decision-makers in each and every case to ensure each patients’ health care needs are met and the most appropriate, highest quality care is being provided,” Dr. Ruth Haskins, president-elect of the California Medical Association, said in a statement.
Absolutely they should Religion should have nothing to do with it.
About time.
I have been waiting so long.
Excuse my ignorance as a non-USAnian, but do Catholic hospitals receive any public money, or get special tax breaks which private hospitals don’t get?
@3: Don’t think so but the main problem is that they’re the only provider in many areas.
Even in areas where they are not the sole provider, in an emergency situation (and often just for regular care), you generally just go to the nearest hospital, and quite often they don’t have a big sign outside saying, “Misogynistic douchebags determine women’s health care here”.
In the same sense other private hospitals do – in the form of Medicare and Medicaid that patient’s bring as their providers. In fact, I read somewhere (don’t remember where) that the bulk of the money coming into Catholic hospitals is effectively government money from one of these sources (which is probably true of most other hospitals).
The irony? Such money can’t be used to pay for abortions, but it can be used to deny needed medical care.
Thanks for the responses. I asked the question because, aside from any other issues, if you take money from general taxation or get special tax breaks, you are then obliged to cater for all the public according to the law of the land or generally accepted professional best practices, regardless of your own personal beliefs.
Kiwi Dave, we sort of have that here too. But there are many exemptions for religious practitioners, which are being broadened almost daily to include anything you say you don’t want to do because of “sincere belief”. Well, I have a sincere belief that the denial of care is a violation of human dignity, but I don’t see any court giving special consideration to that belief. And my “sincere belief” causes no one harm, and would lead to ultimate good in most cases if followed.
I have had a mad on about this issue for 45 years – ever since my mother was denied a tubal ligation by a Catholic doctor, who also did not give her contraception. Her next pregnancy nearly killed her.