"While we’re grateful Mercy Medical has agreed to provide medical care in this instance for Ms. Miller, the reality remains that there is a clear conflict between the best interests of patients and the directives of the Catholic hospital system.”For background, read California Forces Catholics to Fund Abortion, ACLU Celebrates and also read ACLU Sues Bishops for Pro-life Beliefs and Practice as well as ACLU Tells Feds: We'll Force Abortion on Catholic Hospitals
-- Elizabeth Gill, senior attorney at the ACLU of Northern California
-- From "ACLU Forces Catholic Hospital To Sterilize Woman" by Blake Neff, Reporter, Daily Caller 8/26/15
[Patient Rachel] Miller, who says without Mercy’s cooperation she would have to travel 160 miles to receive the procedure, went to the ACLU for help. Last week the ACLU sent a letter to Mercy threatening a lawsuit, arguing that by denying Miller’s tubal ligation they were engaging in sex discrimination by refusing to provide “pregnancy-related care.”
In a post on the group’s website, ACLU attorney Elizabeth Gill said she’s happy the hospital will comply with Miller’s request, but that the group won’t be satisfied until all hospitals are forced to stop following Catholic doctrine.
This isn’t the first time the ACLU has targeted Catholic hospitals. In 2013, the organization sued the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops over its guidelines barring doctors from discussing abortion as a potential option with patients. That lawsuit was dismissed last month.
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From "Want Your Tubes Tied At A Catholic Hospital? Try Threatening To Sue." by Samantha Lachman, Staff Reporter, The Huffington Post 8/25/15
Mercy Medical Center is owned by the San Francisco-based Dignity Health, California's largest private health care network and the fifth-largest in the nation. In April, the hospital said it wouldn't allow patient Rachel Miller to receive a tubal ligation after her caesarean section, which is set to take place next month. The hospital cited the church's Ethical and Religious Directives, which prohibit "inherently evil" reproductive health care procedures like sterilization.
Miller, an attorney who lives in Redding, California, teamed up with the ACLU to protest the decision, which the hospital had communicated to her doctor. The ACLU argued in a letter to Dignity Health that the hospital was discriminating on the basis of sex by denying Miller a tubal ligation, and elevating "theological tenets over patient health."
Asked whether the decision to allow Miller to get a tubal ligation would apply to future cases, a hospital spokeswoman wrote in an email to HuffPost that it "has always and will continue" to operate according to the Catholic church's directives.
The ACLU has targeted Catholic health institutions before for not informing patients in dire medical circumstances that abortion was an option, or for telling doctors they may not discuss abortion with their patients. Health care providers and reproductive rights advocates have increasingly expressed concerns about the practices and procedures of Catholic hospitals, which provide 15 percent of the nation's hospital beds.
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