Catholic Hospital Stripped of Its Affiliation After Providing Emergency Reproductive Care

In 2009, St. Joseph's Catholic Hospital in Phoenix, AZ made a brave choice to save a woman's life.

A woman who was 11 weeks pregnant faced complications that put her life at risk. She had an almost 100 percent chance of dying without the recommend emergency abortion (the fetus was also almost 100 percent likely to die as well), so the woman and her doctor decided to terminate the pregnancy to save her life.

The Catholic's Church's response? That the life-saving medical procedure is absolutely unacceptable in a Catholic hospital. The Bishop in Phoenix, Thomas Olmsted, gave the hospital an ultimatum: promise to never perform an abortion again, regardless of the medical need, or end the hospital's affiliation with the Catholic Church.

St. Joseph's Hospital chose to stand up for what they know is right - life.

St. Joseph’s released this statement about the Bishop’s demands: “Morally, ethically, and legally we simply cannot stand by and let someone die whose life we might be able to save.”

The case in Pheonix highlights a growing point of tension between Catholic hospitals and religious leadership.

In San Francisco, the archbishop recently said he was "initiating a dialogue" with Catholic Health Care West, which has come under fire for providing birth control, sterilization and abortion. Other hospitals have also faced criticism and lost their Catholic status for providing similar services.

Fifteen percent of all hospitals in the United States are Catholic-run, not to mention the many hospitals throughout the world. There are severe health risks with the Bishops stance and ultimatum. Many women do not have an option of which hospital they can use, due to the lack of public hospitals in some geographic areas.

If women are unable to access non-biased reproductive health care, then we are at-risk of letting women die due to completely avoidable maternal health complications.

I understand that this is part of a larger moral debate, but a hospital’s bottom-line should be to save the lives they can regardless of the administration’s own religious or political agenda. Catholic hospitals may have reserve the right to refuse to perform non-emergency abortions, but in matters of life and death, they should choose life.

The ACLU sees the Bishop’s stance as a larger problem and is urging the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure access to emergency reproductive care at all Catholic hospitals.  You can lend you voice to this critical health issue by signing the ACLU's petition.

Photo Credit: Michael 1952