Religion and Politics

Spread of Catholic Hospitals Limits Reproductive Care Across the U.S.

Francis Stead Sellers and Meena Venkataramanan of The Washington Post report, “The Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion is revealing the growing influence of Catholic health systems and their restrictions on reproductive services including birth control and abortion — even in the diminishing number of states where the procedure remains legal.” Catholic hospitals make up an increasing share of the hospitals in the nation, with some states having more than 40 percent of their hospital beds in Catholic hospitals. They write, “The Catholic health-care facilities follow directives from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops that prohibit treatment it deems ‘immoral’: sterilization including vasectomies, postpartum tubal ligations and contraception, as well as abortion.”

Read at The Washington Post

• Email
• Print