Catholic organizations absorbing secular hospitals in order to impose religious restrictions on medical treatment. As if I needed another reason to dislike organized religions.

Courtesy of Alternet:

 Across the U.S., religious healthcare corporations are absorbing once secular and independent hospitals and in the process imposing religious restrictions that pit standard medical practice against theology. 

Recently, a woman was traveling across the Midwest when she developed abdominal pain. She and her husband went to the nearest hospital, where she was diagnosed with a potentially fatal ectopic pregnancy. The doctors recommended immediate surgery to remove the fallopian tube containing the misplaced embryo, a procedure that would reduce by half her future chances of conceiving a child. They failed to mention that a simple injection of Methotrexate would solve the problem, leaving her fertility intact. Why the omission? The Catholic hospital where she got diagnosed was subject to the “ Ethical and Religious Directives” of the Catholic bishops, which state, “In case of extrauterine pregnancy, no intervention is morally licit which constitutes a direct abortion.” 

According to Catholic moralists, an injection that destroys an ectopic embryo is a direct abortion, while removing the part of a woman’s reproductive system containing the embryo is not. While this may sound strange (or abhorrent) to outsiders, it has its own internal logic. Catholic ethics ultimately are determined by theologically based perceptions of what actions God approves and doesn’t approve. While compassion does matter, the end goal is to improve the spiritual standing or righteousness of the person performing the action. These theological dictates may or may not align with the questions that govern secular medical ethics and practice: how to minimize harm and suffering or maximize wellbeing while respecting patient autonomy. 

The recent case of a young Salvadoran mother named Beatriz offered a graphic example of how religious interference in medical care can force doctors to commit malpractice. Beatriz, who suffers from lupus, was pregnant with a nonviable anencephalic fetus yet was refused an abortion clear through the second trimester, as her condition became increasingly risky. Salvadoran minister of health, Maria Isabel Rodriguez, called her situation a “grave maternal illness with a high probability of deterioration or maternal death.” 

“I just want to live,” Beatriz told the press—echoing the sentiments of Savita Halappanavar who died last year after being denied an abortion in Catholic Ireland. Salvadoran doctors were willing to perform the needed abortion, but their hands were tied by laws based in Catholic theology. Finally, at 26 weeks gestation and under international pressure, a Salvadoran court ruled that Beatriz could end the pregnancy— via caesarean section. As in the case of the ectopic pregnancy, Beatriz was offered an invasive surgical procedure rather than the standard treatment which would minimize recovery time and leave her body intact. As best can be determined from news reports, the only reason the doctors had to cut her open was to satisfy the Catholic pretense that this was an attempt to deliver a viable baby. 

 In the wake of Halappanavar’s death and Beatriz’s dangerously substandard care, Marge Berer, founder of the international journal, Reproductive Health Matters, questioned the ability of Catholic-controlled facilities to provide emergency obstetric services and asked whether they should be formally stripped of their right to provide maternity care more broadly. Unfortunately, with Catholic corporations gobbling up independent care facilities, a woman may have few other options. If all currently proposed mergers are completed in Washington State, for example, nine counties will have all hospital beds controlled by religious institutions by the end of 2013.

So if the Church cannot get people to follow their directions by preaching it to them in the pulpit, they will just force their beliefs on them by controlling their access to medical treatment, which will now favor the almighty fetus above all others. 

And ladies the Catholic church would especially like to thank you for your generosity with tithing as they can now use that money to more effectively control your bodies and turn you into breeding stock.

Is it any wonder that women are leaving the church in droves?