• Bishops' health care directives depriving poor women of most commonly used form of contraception, especially at non-Catholic hospitals merged with Catholic hospitals. (catholicsforchoice.org)
  • Non-Catholic hospitals across the country are now struggling to find ways to avoid complying with the Directives and to continue to provide tubal ligation, a service that is one of the most affordable and safest methods of contraception. (catholicsforchoice.org)
  • The occasion for this manifesto was the recent presidential policy of forcing private health care plans to cover sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs and contraception. (jta.org)
  • The Directives prohibit a range of reproductive health services, including contraception, sterilization, many infertility treatments, and abortion care, even when a woman's health or life is in danger. (aclu.org)
  • When charges that contraceptives were abortifacients failed to halt the measure, the bishops turned to a new tack: claiming that contraception equity laws violated the religious freedom of insurers and employers who disapproved of contraception and would be forced to subsidize its use. (salon.com)
  • Chief among perceived threats to religious liberty is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' mandate that most employers, including Catholic hospitals, schools and charities, provide insurance coverage for artificial contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, which the church morally opposes. (catholicsun.org)
  • Some states also protect the right to refuse to participate in sterilization, contraception or artificial insemination. (consciencelaws.org)
  • The mandate has generated massive opposition from pro-life groups because it forces employers, regardless of their religious or moral convictions, to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception under threat of heavy penalties. (joemiller.us)
  • The Obama administration opposed the order, arguing that Tyndale House Publishers isn't religious enough for an exemption from the mandate, a component of ObamaCare that forces employers, regardless of their religious or moral convictions, to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception under threat of heavy penalties. (joemiller.us)
  • The government rejected the U.S. bishops efforts to negotiate an exemption for faith-based employers"including Catholic hospitals, charities and colleges"that are morally opposed to abortion and contraception. (firstthings.com)
  • The Catholic Church is the only visible religious group in American public life that holds consistent beliefs regarding the morality of life issues, including abortion and contraception. (firstthings.com)
  • 1 " These regulations mandate that all employers (with just a few exceptions), must provide health insurance coverage that includes subsidized contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs. (michaeljournal.org)
  • Since this HHS mandate will require every insurer to include abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and artificial contraception, we will not be able to obtain any coverage that is free from these'services,'and we will be forced to pay for them directly. (michaeljournal.org)
  • Unfortunately, individuals, hospitals, insurance companies, pharmacies and other health care entities continue to use religion as an excuse to deny communities and families basic information and care related to reproductive health, including contraception and abortion, as well as end-of-life care and LGBTQ+ care. (aclu-nm.org)
  • The Directives prohibit a range of reproductive health services, including contraception, sterilization, many infertility treatments, abortion (even when a patient's health or life is jeopardized by a pregnancy) and routinely deny care to LGBTQ+ individuals. (aclu-nm.org)
  • No religious institution - Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital - none has to either refer contraception, none has to pay for contraception, none has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide. (catholiclane.com)
  • PRI will have to either buy insurance that covers contraception, sterilization, or abortion-inducing drugs, or we will have to go on the Obamacare plan that does. (catholiclane.com)
  • PRI and like-minded organizations would still have to pay for sterilization, contraception, and abortifacients indirectly, through increased premiums. (catholiclane.com)
  • The regulation of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service, as part of the federal health care reform act, requires the diocese and affiliated organizations to offer health insurance coverage that violates core Catholic teachings against use of contraception, sterilization and abortion-causing drugs. (catholicphilly.com)
  • A legal group that aims to defend religious freedom has launched a new website offering a wealth of resources on the contraception mandate, and the various lawsuits that have been filed against it. (catholicnewsagency.com)
  • A total of 23 lawsuits have been filed by 55 plaintiffs to challenge a federal mandate that will require employers and colleges to offer health insurance plans covering contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, even if doing so violates their consciences. (catholicnewsagency.com)
  • Not all Dignity institutions are designated as "Catholic hospitals" subject to the directives, but its so-called non-Catholic hospitals are subject to the slightly less restrictive Statement of Common Values, which also bars abortions. (latimes.com)
  • The new policy follows criticism the UC system has faced for affiliations with religious hospitals that refuse to provide services such as abortions, sterilizations or transgender surgery. (ksby.com)
  • For example, in Alaska, the state supreme court ruled that some community hospitals must perform abortions against their will. (consciencelaws.org)
  • The Department of Health and Human Services spelled out plans to protect medical providers who refuse to perform procedures such as abortions because of moral or religious scruples. (fox29.com)
  • Since 1985, presidents have had discretion under the Kemp-Kasten Amendment to withhold funds from any organization that supports or participates in coercive abortions or involuntary sterilizations. (frc.org)
  • The UNFPA may not directly fund sterilizations and abortions in Xinjiang, but even if it doesn't, their partnership with China's National Health Commission allows it to divert other funds elsewhere. (frc.org)
  • China is the world's foremost perpetrator of coerced abortions and sterilizations. (frc.org)
  • Forced abortions and subsequent sterilizations were central to the program. (frc.org)
  • Throughout Xinjiang, hundreds of thousands of Uighur women are forced to accept intrauterine devices and undergo sterilizations and even abortions. (frc.org)
  • Those on both sides of the abortion debate can agree that coerced sterilizations or abortions are a grave violation of human dignity. (frc.org)
  • Hospital staff could refuse to sign in patients seeking abortions, to assist patients in any way before getting sterilizations, or even provide any information about medical conditions and treatment options. (aclu-wa.org)
  • As the University of California's health system renews contracts with hundreds of outside hospitals and clinics - many with religious affiliations - some of its doctors and faculty want stronger language to ensure that physicians can perform the treatments they deem appropriate, including abortions for women or hysterectomies for transgender patients. (dailytexasnews.com)
  • Obama's speech came amid harsh criticism of his administration for policies that are being described as hostile to religious freedom, notably a new federal mandate that all health plans, including those at church-run hospitals, colleges and service agencies, cover contraceptives and sterilizations at no cost. (ncronline.org)
  • Catholic facilities must follow ethical and religious directives that say they can't provide abortion or sterilization services and may not 'promote or condone' contraceptives. (healthcaredive.com)
  • Thousands of Americans of all faiths are expected to participate in these rallies, organized by Citizens for a Pro-Life Society and the Pro-Life Action League, to oppose the new mandate from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that requires all employers to provide free contraceptives, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs through their health plans. (blogspot.com)
  • Starting July 1, the HHS mandate will require the health insurance plans of the diocese's elementary schools and Catholic Charities to cover services including abortifacient drugs, sterilization procedures, contraceptives and related education and counseling - or face crippling fines that could seriously jeopardize how they conduct their ministries. (catholicphilly.com)
  • In California, the legal group filed a lawsuit against a Catholic hospital for refusing an elective hysterectomy to a woman who identifies as a man and who sought the procedure as part of her putative sex reassignment. (catholicnewsagency.com)
  • We do not provide elective sterilizations at Dignity Health's Catholic facilities in accordance with the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (ERDs) and the medical staff bylaws. (ebar.com)
  • St. Joseph Hospital has a policy of not providing "elective" sterilizations, as they are in conflict with Catholic beliefs, and the lawsuit states that Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, prepared by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, refers to them as "intrinsically evil. (northcoastjournal.com)
  • The hospital forced a nurse to assist in an elective abortion despite her objections. (heritage.org)
  • Washington, DC -A coalition of leading women's health care advocates called today for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to revise their Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (Directives) and end their ban on voluntary female sterilization at Catholic and Catholic-affiliated hospitals. (catholicsforchoice.org)
  • Fifteen organizations, including women's health, rights, and research groups, cited a review of 150 hospital mergers in the past decade that has identified at least 40 non-Catholic hospitals that had merged with Catholic hospitals and now face having to comply with the Directives and stop providing female sterilization to thousands of women, many of them poor. (catholicsforchoice.org)
  • Responding to pressure from the Vatican, the bishops had voted to revise the Directives in June 2001, putting sterilization on par with abortion and euthanasia as an "intrinsically immoral" service and banning the procedure at all Catholic and Catholic-affiliated hospitals. (catholicsforchoice.org)
  • As organizations dedicated to the health and well-being of women, we respectfully ask the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to reconsider its June 2001 decision to revise the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (" Directives ") as they relate to the provision of sterilization for women. (catholicsforchoice.org)
  • The revised Directives strictly limit the ability of non-Catholic hospitals that have merged with Catholic hospitals to provide voluntary female sterilization. (catholicsforchoice.org)
  • A review by Catholics for a Free Choice of the approximately 150 hospital mergers in the past decade has identified 40 such situations in which sterilization services were preserved but are now jeopardized by the revised Directives . (catholicsforchoice.org)
  • Meeting in Orlando for their spring meeting, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops overwhelmingly decided via a voice vote to begin a process of revising the Ethical and Religious Directives, guidelines that draw from theology and church teaching and regulate the roughly 2,200 Catholic hospitals and health care facilities in the United States. (americamagazine.org)
  • Some bishops said that the drafting committee should look at the legal impact of any revisions, particularly at how federal health care guidelines could impact Catholic hospitals, while others, including Bishop Michael Olson, who heads the Diocese of Fort Worth and who serves on the doctrine committee, said that a broader pastoral document about gender dysphoria could be helpful after the directives are updated. (americamagazine.org)
  • The hospital took the action to comply with the church's Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, which prohibit sterilization procedures except in very narrow circumstances. (latimes.com)
  • The Ethical and Religious Directives forbid a host of procedures associated with women's reproductive rights, treatments for transgender patients and end-of-life care. (latimes.com)
  • The University of California regents are wrestling with a question that should have an easy answer: Should they approve an "affiliation" between UC San Francisco, one of the leading teaching hospitals in America, and Dignity Health, a Catholic hospital chain that openly discriminates against women and LGBTQ patients and requires its doctors to comply with religious directives, some of which run counter to medical science and ethical practice? (latimes.com)
  • The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (the Directives), issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), govern care at these facilities. (aclu.org)
  • the hospital was Catholic, and a procedure that results in sterilization is a violation of the Ethical and Religious Directives that, with rare exceptions, govern Catholic hospitals. (vox.com)
  • Catholic facilities argue that the directives are protected under religious liberty laws . (vox.com)
  • The implications here are clear for patients like Minton, but the Ethical and Religious Directives also frown on fertility treatment. (vox.com)
  • But the directives do allow for sterilizations when they are performed to "alleviate a present and serious pathology," and are deemed medically necessary. (northcoastjournal.com)
  • Catholic-affiliated hospitals like CHRISTUS follow the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. (aclu-nm.org)
  • Catholic hospitals operate under the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services , which for obstetrics and gynecology residents may create barriers to receiving adequate training in family planning. (allenpress.com)
  • Because it turned into Catholic, the hospital observed ethics and nonsecular directives set out with the aid of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which restrict being pregnant terminations, tubal ligations, fertility remedies, and start control pills . (bloggingkits.org)
  • Others have gone so far as to urge the university to reject partnerships with hospitals that have ethical and religious directives against sterilization, abortion, some miscarriage management procedures, and some gender-affirming treatments. (dailytexasnews.com)
  • At the time, it was celebrated as a win by those advocating for the university to push back on religious directives from affiliates. (dailytexasnews.com)
  • The U.S. bishops voted on Friday to begin a process that could lead to rules formally banning Catholic hospitals from offering medical procedures and therapies sometimes collectively described as gender-affirming care. (americamagazine.org)
  • The document describes "abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide and direct sterilization" as "intrinsically evil" and bars administrators and employees of Catholic hospitals from assisting or even making referrals for patients seeking those procedures. (latimes.com)
  • Everyone is affected by the HHS mandate, but especially Catholic hospitals, healthcare facilities, and medical personnel who will find much of this mandate morally repugnant with respect to medical topics such as abortion, sterilization, euthanasia, and more. (liguorian.org)
  • While most Catholic hospitals already refrain from offering transgender surgeries and hormonal interventions, the vote means that the bishops will move to formalize such bans by incorporating guidance from a document released by the U.S.C.C.B.'s doctrine committee in March. (americamagazine.org)
  • While most Catholic hospitals already refrain from offering transgender surgeries and hormonal interventions, the vote means that the bishops will move to formalize such bans. (americamagazine.org)
  • The campaign, initiated by the U.S. bishops in 2012, calls for a two-w eek period of prayer, education and action on preserving religious freedom in the U.S. The observance ends July 4, Independence Day. (catholicsun.org)
  • Celebrated at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore, the evening Mass began 14 days of prayer, education and action on religious liberty issues called for by the U.S. bishops. (catholicsun.org)
  • As chairman of the U.S. bishops' Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, Archbishop Lori has been at the forefront of national efforts aiming to protect religious liberty from government infringement. (catholicsun.org)
  • The bishops of the United States invite us to observe Religious Freedom Week from June 22 to 29, which is from the memorial of the martyrs Saints John Fisher and Thomas More to the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. (anchornews.org)
  • At the bishops website, https://www.usccb.org/committees/religious-liberty/religious-freedom-week, suggestions are given for each day of the week. (anchornews.org)
  • U.S. bishops have also begun a process that will explicitly lead to a ban on provision of any form of gender affirming care in Catholic hospitals, formalizing an already routine practice of denying access to this necessary care. (aclu-nm.org)
  • In disputing Biden's assertions, the bishops' conference pointed out that the mandate has but a very narrow exemption for religious employers. (catholiclane.com)
  • The bishops' conference continues to ask the Obama administration "in the strongest possible terms" to take action that truly removes "the various infringements on religious freedom imposed by the mandate. (catholiclane.com)
  • The Catholic bishops have always supported access to health care coverage for everyone, as long as the conscience rights and religious freedom of people and groups including the Catholic Church are protected. (catholicphilly.com)
  • Rather than an exemption, the government has granted the service and education institutions an "accommodation" that does nothing to alleviate the bishops' religious liberty concerns with the mandate. (catholicphilly.com)
  • Bishops from every diocese in the U.S. have spoken out against the mandate, warning that it violates religious freedom and could force Catholic hospitals, schools and charitable agencies to shut down in order to adhere to their beliefs. (catholicnewsagency.com)
  • The ACLU has long opposed Catholic hospitals that act according to Catholic ethics and refuse to provide "reproductive health" services including abortion and sterilization. (catholicnewsagency.com)
  • American funding for the UNFPA has long been controversial due to the organization's link to coercive abortion and sterilization, especially in China. (frc.org)
  • Minton had experienced what's known as "religious refusal," a growing - and divisive - phenomenon in which health care is denied on the basis of religious beliefs. (vox.com)
  • regardless of the provider's conscientious objection or long-standing religious beliefs against such coverage," wrote Cathy Deeds of the NCCB. (salon.com)
  • Cranford, NJ -American Atheists today announced a campaign to enact legislation that would require health care providers to inform patients, insurance companies, and government agencies about any medical procedures and services the provider chooses not to perform because of the provider's religious beliefs. (atheists.org)
  • There are no state or federal laws or regulations that require health care providers to inform patients of services or treatments a provider will not provide because of the provider's religious beliefs. (atheists.org)
  • They protect health care workers, hospitals, organizations that receive HHS funds, and others from having to provide, participate in, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for certain procedures if doing so would violate their sincere religious beliefs or moral convictions. (heritage.org)
  • Religious freedom in the United States means that we all have a right to our own religious beliefs - including the right to have none. (aclu-nm.org)
  • A rule proposed by Trump's Department of Health and Human Services would let health care providers use their religious beliefs to justify turning away patients in need. (aclu-wa.org)
  • Whether applying a public-accommodation law to compel an artist to speak or stay silent, contrary to the artist's sincerely held religious beliefs, violates the free speech or free exercise clauses of the First Amendment. (thefire.org)
  • We have no choice but to take this action in order to protect our religious freedom to act in the public square without violating the beliefs of our Catholic faith," Bishop Brandt said in a letter the day the suit was filed. (catholicphilly.com)
  • The broad mandate of equal opportunity for all Americans directs that religious discrimination be prohibited in general commercial settings. (jta.org)
  • The administration also has put in place a religious exemption to the mandate, but leaders of various Catholic and other faith-based organizations say it is too narrow and they will be forced to provide coverage they oppose. (ncronline.org)
  • The decision only applies to the company and does not stop the Obama HHS mandate nationwide against other religious groups, businesses, hospitals, or educational institutions. (joemiller.us)
  • The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced a final decision to mandate that every U.S. employer must provide health insurance coverage that makes birth control, sterilization, and even abortion-causing drugs available to its employees free of charge. (firstthings.com)
  • On March 23, concerned citizens in over 50 cities - including Washington D.C., New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco - will gather at federal buildings for a rally with the theme, "Stand Up for Religious Freedom - Stop the HHS Mandate! (blogspot.com)
  • Religious leaders and other public figures will speak out against the HHS Mandate. (blogspot.com)
  • The opponents of the mandate say HHS provided a "religious exemption" so narrow that it would exclude Catholic hospitals, universities, and charities, forcing these institutions to act in direct opposition to Catholic teaching through the health care plans they provide. (blogspot.com)
  • With the HHS Mandate, the Obama administration has presumed upon itself the authority to decide what counts as a religious institution in this country," said Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League. (blogspot.com)
  • The Obama mandate is a complete affront to religious liberty," said Monica Miller, director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society. (blogspot.com)
  • As a result, this mandate would coerce each and every individual Sister of Life to betray her religious vows. (michaeljournal.org)
  • The Diocese of Greensburg in western Pennsylvania and Bishop Lawrence E. Brandt filed suit in a U.S. District Court May 27, claiming the regulation known as the HHS mandate infringes on the church's religious liberty. (catholicphilly.com)
  • There was a lot of misinformation out there on the mandate," said Emily Hardman, attorney and communications director for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a D.C.-based organization. (catholicnewsagency.com)
  • Private business owners have also joined in objecting to the mandate, arguing that religious freedom extends not only to religious organizations but also to religious individuals seeking to run non-religious companies in accordance with their faith. (catholicnewsagency.com)
  • Stating that California's interest in fighting discrimination against LGBTQ residents outweighs the right to impose religious standards on healthcare, an appeals court has reinstated a lawsuit against the Catholic hospital chain Dignity Health for barring a hysterectomy for a transgender patient. (latimes.com)
  • Minton, who was unavailable for comment, felt he'd been denied care on the basis of his gender identity, making it a civil rights issue , and in September, a court agreed to let him continue a lawsuit against Dignity Health, which operated the hospital where he was denied care. (vox.com)
  • Dignity Health, which has since merged with Catholic Health Initiatives to form CommonSpirit Health, told the Los Angeles Times that its hospitals "do not perform sterilizing procedures such as hysterectomies for any patient regardless of their gender identity, unless there is a serious threat to the life or health of the patient. (vox.com)
  • We understand how important this surgery is for transgender individuals, and were happy to provide Mr. Minton and his surgeon the use of another Dignity Health hospital for his surgery within a few days. (ebar.com)
  • Many of the agreements are with faith-based facilities, including prominent hospitals operated by Dignity Health, Providence, or Adventist Health. (dailytexasnews.com)
  • Since we are neither employers, nor employees, or any religious institution, we cannot even take advantage of the'religious exemption'contained in the new regulations or'compromise. (michaeljournal.org)
  • After an outcry that the exemptions didn't go far enough, Obama announced that church-affiliated schools, universities, hospitals and charities also would not have to provide or pay for contraceptive coverage, 'but their female employees could obtain such coverage directly from the employers' insurance companies at no cost," the New York Times wrote. (politifact.com)
  • Meanwhile, the Senate voted March 1, 2012, to uphold Obama's contraceptive policy and kill the Republican effort to let employers and insurers deny coverage on religious grounds. (politifact.com)
  • Establishments that provide secular services - such as hospitals, universities and the like, even if they are faith based - would have to pay for services that violate their religious convictions. (jta.org)
  • It is part of a broader movement to limit religious freedom to 'freedom of worship' - to accord a fuller degree of religious freedom to houses of worship but a lesser degree of religious freedom to charities, hospitals and universities. (catholicsun.org)
  • Under the regulation, hospitals, universities, clinics and other entities that receive funding from HHS programs like Medicare and Medicaid will have to certify that they comply with some 25 federal laws protecting conscience and religious rights. (fox29.com)
  • However, the exemption is not available for equally religious institutions within the diocese, such as schools, universities, social service agencies and hospitals. (catholicphilly.com)
  • SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The University of California's governing board has adopted a new policy that tightens the rules on affiliations with hospitals that impose religious restrictions on health care. (ksby.com)
  • Today, at least one in seven hospital beds around the country are in hospitals that impose religious restrictions on individual care - whether or not you are a member of that religion. (aclu-nm.org)
  • The lawsuit was brought by Evan Minton, whose hysterectomy was abruptly canceled by Dignity's Mercy San Juan Medical Center of Carmichael, Calif., in 2016 when hospital officials learned he was transgender. (latimes.com)
  • For many other transgender people who find themselves in this situation, they have no one to turn to, and that's why I want to come forward," Minton, who eventually had the procedure done at another hospital, said in an interview. (ebar.com)
  • St. Joseph Health issued a brief statement last night in response to the civil rights lawsuit filed yesterday alleging transgender discrimination at its Eureka hospital, saying it takes the allegations "very seriously" and is committing its "full attention to investigating this matter. (northcoastjournal.com)
  • The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit this morning alleging that St. Joseph Hospital violated the rights of a transgender man by refusing to perform a medically necessary surgery because of his gender identity. (northcoastjournal.com)
  • The Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, criticized Obama for praising work done by faith-based groups in providing social services, but remaining "silent about essential safeguards on faith-based funding to ensure that when religious organizations receive government funds, this money is not used for sectarian purposes or to discriminate in hiring. (ncronline.org)
  • Intolerance for religious organizations has real consequences. (anchornews.org)
  • Catholic colleges, hospitals, and other Christian organizations will be forced to go against their conscience. (michaeljournal.org)
  • This exemption applies only to non-profit organizations that exist primarily for the inculcation of religious values and both employ and serve primarily members of their own faith. (catholiclane.com)
  • Therefore, the conference said, any religious charities, hospitals and social agencies that serve all people of any faith - including Georgetown Hospital and the other organizations named by Biden, as well as the Population Research Institute - are simply not covered. (catholiclane.com)
  • The administration has been talking about making an additional "accommodation" for non-exempt religious organizations like PRI, but this turns out upon examination to be nothing more than an accounting gimmick. (catholiclane.com)
  • The Health Department justifies denying exemptions to Catholic charities, hospitals, and colleges because it says they are not really religious institutions. (firstthings.com)
  • Also, under Wisconsin law, civil immunity is provided for hospitals and hospital employees (s. 253.09), physicians (s. 448.03 (5) (a)) and nurses (s. 441.06 (6)) for any civil damages resulting from a refusal to perform a sterilization procedure or an abortion, if such refusal is based on religious or moral precepts. (consciencelaws.org)
  • When Mr. Knight asked to instead wear a blue gown, a hospital nurse refused, telling him that a pink gown was required because he was receiving a 'female' procedure," the lawsuit states, adding that hospital staff also repeatedly mis-gendered Knight despite "the fact that his medical records clearly identify Mr. Knight as male. (northcoastjournal.com)
  • Then, just minutes before the procedure was scheduled to begin, the lawsuit alleges Stokes came and told Knight the surgery had been cancelled by the hospital and would not be rescheduled because St. Joseph Hospital is a Catholic facility. (northcoastjournal.com)
  • It would allow UC personnel at sectarian hospitals to perform needed procedures, such as a hysterectomy or delivery of an ectopic pregnancy, if they cannot safely be transferred elsewhere. (ksby.com)
  • Minton said that Dawson finally "was able to secure emergency surgical privileges for later in the week, and she performed Mr. Minton's hysterectomy at Methodist Hospital on Friday, September 2. (ebar.com)
  • He began hormone replacement therapy in 2015, had a bilateral mastectomy the following year and scheduled a hysterectomy at St. Joseph Hospital in 2017. (northcoastjournal.com)
  • The lawsuit states that Knight's surgeon, Deepak Stokes, scheduled the hysterectomy at the hospital for Aug. 30, 2017. (northcoastjournal.com)
  • The number of Catholic acute-care hospitals has been increasing rapidly, threatening women's access to reproductive health care, according to a report released by the American Civil Liberties Union and The MergerWatch Project. (aclu.org)
  • In 2011, one in ten acute-care hospitals were Catholic-sponsored or -affiliated. (aclu.org)
  • If a religiously affiliated hospital or health care provider has some objection to providing birth control, access to cancer therapies that could result in sterilization, mental health services, or hormone replacement therapy, they can continue to opt out of providing those services. (atheists.org)
  • Denied Reproductive Care at a Religiously Affiliated Hospital? (aclu-nm.org)
  • After repealing health care law, will 'enact into law conscience protections for health care providers, including doctors, nurses, and hospitals,' such as allowing them to decline to provide abortion services. (politifact.com)
  • With the rise of Catholic hospitals has come the increasing danger that women's reproductive health care will be compromised by religious restrictions. (aclu.org)
  • We can also confirm that several of these hospitals, like Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital in Grass Valley, CA, are the only hospitals providing sterilization services for women in the area. (catholicsforchoice.org)
  • The proposed legislation would require health care providers to simply provide a list of services they will not perform for religious reason to patients, potential patients, health insurers, and state and federal grant or subsidy programs. (atheists.org)
  • Health and Human Services also referred a hospital in Vermont to the Department of Justice. (heritage.org)
  • The health care law requires most insurers to cover preventive services for free, including birth control drugs and devices, as well as sterilization procedures. (politifact.com)
  • We evaluated how training at a Catholic hospital affects trainees' subsequent provision of reproductive health services at secular institutions. (allenpress.com)
  • You may have heard that there's a new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division in the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights. (medscape.com)
  • As Medscape Medical News first reported in August, the class action suit ( Kelly vs Azar ) has a broader goal - to dismantle the Affordable Care Act using the argument that many of the preventive services it covers, including PrEP, violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act . (medscape.com)
  • To single out PrEP, which are FDA approved drugs that effectively prevent HIV, and conclude that its coverage violates the religious freedom of certain individuals, is plain wrong, highly discriminatory, and impedes the public health of our nation," he said. (medscape.com)
  • Even in extreme cases - such as when a faith mandates racial discrimination in its religious practices - the faith's right to religious freedom allows it to triumph among its own voluntary faithful in its pews and schools (although it might lose its tax exemption if it persists in extreme practices). (jta.org)
  • Most of these laws address medical procedures such as abortion, sterilization and assisted suicide. (fox29.com)
  • For more than 40 years, federal law has protected people's right to not participate in certain controversial procedures, such as abortion, sterilization, and assisted suicide. (heritage.org)
  • The lawsuit, filed on behalf of 29-year-old Oliver Knight, of Eureka, seeks unspecified damages and a court order that would prevent the hospital from discriminating against patients on the basis of gender identity or expression. (northcoastjournal.com)
  • St. Joseph Hospital spokesperson Christian Hill indicated in an email to the Journal that the hospital is still in the process of "gathering details" about the lawsuit and "will communicate as appropriate with the media. (northcoastjournal.com)
  • According to the lawsuit, Knight, who had come to the hospital alone, was then forced to sit outside "under the influence of medication administered by the hospital and experiencing a panic attack, until he was able to secure a ride home. (northcoastjournal.com)
  • As such, the lawsuit alleges that St. Joseph Hospital regularly allows surgeons to perform hysterectomies on cisgender women when the procedures are deemed necessary to treat certain diagnosis, including uterine fibroids, endometriosis, pelvic support problems and gynecological cancer. (northcoastjournal.com)
  • The Biden DOJ also dropped the lawsuit against the Vermont hospital that refused to comply with the Church Amendments. (heritage.org)
  • Such a exception would also allow the millions of Catholic and non-Catholic women who choose sterilization each year to exercise their freedom of conscience at the hospital of their choice, in their community. (catholicsforchoice.org)
  • The recent Catholic manifesto for religious freedom, "Protecting Consciences" (www.usccb.org/conscience), presents a view that seems hard to contest: "What we ask is nothing more than the right to follow our consciences as we live the life of our teachings. (jta.org)
  • The federal government and most states have enacted "conscience clauses" -- statutes intended to protect the right of health care providers to refuse to provide or participate in certain procedures to which they have moral or religious objections. (consciencelaws.org)
  • In 2018, the Trump administration established a Conscience and Religious Freedom Division within HHS' Office for Civil Rights dedicated to protecting those important rights. (heritage.org)
  • The hospital also refused to change its policies to comply with the Church Amendments and prevent its employees from having their conscience rights violated again. (heritage.org)
  • According to new studies published nowadays with the Columbia Law School Public Rights/Private Conscience Project, girls of coloration like Bertram Roberts are even much more likely to be dealt with at Catholic hospitals wherein nonsecular doctrines dictate scientific practices. (bloggingkits.org)
  • I'm not going to argue that individuals shouldn't try to follow their personal values, but I don't think it's right when we create a Conscience and Religious Freedom Division that doesn't capture patient values, interests, and rights along with those of providers. (medscape.com)
  • The ruling could narrow the ability of Catholic hospitals in California to place limits on the healthcare it delivers to patients. (latimes.com)
  • San Francisco-based Dignity is the largest hospital chain in California and the fifth largest in the nation. (latimes.com)
  • University of California Health is in the middle of a two-year process to renew contracts with affiliate hospitals and clinics that help the university deliver care in underserved parts of the state. (dailytexasnews.com)
  • It's those kinds of cases that makes so extraordinary the Catholic Church's claim that "religious people" should never "be forced by the government" to act in a way that "violates" their "consciences. (jta.org)
  • The American Civil Liberties Union, a backer of the bill, said the legislation "clarifies that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act cannot be used in civil rights contexts, prohibiting religious liberty - which is a core American value - from being used as a license to discriminate. (catholicnewsagency.com)
  • In fact, they issued a statement the very next day, criticizing the V.P. for making an "inaccurate statement of fact" about the contraceptive mandate's impact on religious institutions. (catholiclane.com)
  • The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012 , introduced by Ohio Rep. Steve Chabot in February, says no government regulations may 'require any individual or entity to offer, provide, or purchase coverage for a contraceptive or sterilization service, or related education or counseling. (politifact.com)
  • Whether, assuming that such religious expression is private and protected by the free speech and free exercise clauses, the establishment clause nevertheless compels public schools to prohibit it. (thefire.org)
  • I generally find Catholics, including the clergy and women religious, to be poorly informed. (liguorian.org)
  • In so ruling, the Obama Administration [through this bill] has cast aside the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics our Nation's first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty. (michaeljournal.org)
  • Though the 1993 federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) passed with overwhelming support, such protections have recently drawn strong opposition from some lawmakers, pro-abortion access groups and LGBT advocates who contend they interfere with basic rights. (catholicnewsagency.com)
  • Surely a pastoral exception can be made to allow non-Catholic hospitals in partnership with Catholic hospitals to provide a health care service that is so needed and vital, especially for low-income women. (catholicsforchoice.org)
  • The head of the Catholic Health Association, which represents hundreds of Catholic hospitals and other health care facilities, said that she hopes the revision process will "engage in broad consultation with patients suffering from gender dysphoria and providers who care for them to ensure the health of the whole person. (americamagazine.org)
  • This legislation would help patients get the information they need to navigate the increasingly complicated-and increasingly religious-health care marketplace. (atheists.org)
  • Religious hospitals account for more than 17 percent of all hospital beds in the United States, and religiously based hospitals, physicians, and other health care entities treat more than 1 in 6 Americans each year. (atheists.org)
  • The ACLU of New Mexico is working to ensure that no patient is refused access to information and health care because of the religious doctrines of the institutions running hospitals, clinics or other medical facilities - especially institutions that receive taxpayer funding. (aclu-nm.org)
  • He praised America s founders for their commitment to religious liberty and their belief that Judeo-Christian moral teachings are essential to shaping citizens and democratic institutions. (firstthings.com)
  • Catholic hospitals do not perform sterilizing procedures such as hysterectomies for any patient regardless of their gender identity, unless there is a serious threat to the life or health of the patient. (latimes.com)
  • Knight arrived at the hospital and was going through pre-operation procedures, according to the suit, which included changing into a surgical gown. (northcoastjournal.com)
  • The answer is simple: when a religious institution undertakes to run a secular institution like a hospital or an adoption agency or a soup kitchen, our society wisely demands as a condition for entry that it agrees to the same rules of non-discrimination as secular institutions. (jta.org)
  • The proposal created a furor among UCSF professionals, who questioned whether a public institution could morally or legally collaborate with a hospital chain that openly practices discrimination. (latimes.com)
  • Calling the proposed revisions "a delicate matter," Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Seattle said such consultations were "absolutely necessary" and should also include physicians and hospital administrators. (americamagazine.org)
  • Logically extended, the argument proposed by the Catholic Church to promote religious liberties could in fact return us to the pre-civil rights era, with religions asserting biased "religious convictions" that would promote discrimination. (jta.org)
  • We all agree, and American law generally affirms, that religious institutions engaging in core religious and educational functions may discriminate in favor of their religious values in all areas of worship and religious education. (jta.org)
  • Indeed, with all the recent controversy surrounding birth control and Catholic hospitals, do any of us imagine that secular law ought to permit Catholic hospitals to discriminate against non-Christian doctors or patients, as they did a century ago? (jta.org)
  • Religious liberty is not a license to discriminate and harm. (aclu-wa.org)
  • Hospitals are adopting more advanced technology, like virtual reality, robotics and artificial intelligence, to improve training programs, patient engagement, staff burnout and clinical decision-making. (healthcaredive.com)
  • Arielle Del Turco is FRC's assistant director of the Center for Religious Liberty. (frc.org)
  • Back in June 2021, the regents approved the policy governing how its doctors practice at outside hospitals and clinics with religious or ethical restrictions. (dailytexasnews.com)
  • The White House has issued a statement saying that religious institutions have one year (date) to comply with the new bill. (michaeljournal.org)
  • Beijing has insisted the camps are vocational training centers that were built to address the threat of religious extremism. (nbc-2.com)
  • And as The New Republic suggested in 2016, Catholic ethics restrictions have spread to secular hospitals through opaque sales and merger contracts that leave patients within the dark approximately what care is or isn't to be had. (bloggingkits.org)
  • Allowing private and individual religious values to trump societal obligations of fairness and equality would spell the end of the American commitment to equal opportunity and promote the rise of discriminatory religious communities. (jta.org)
  • America's recent genocide determination against China over its forced sterilizations of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang makes the effort to cut U.S. funding with the UNFPA even more urgent. (frc.org)
  • A Jamestown Foundation report found funds from the Chinese central government went towards funding sterilizations in Xinjiang, sufficient for almost 200,000 sterilizations. (frc.org)
  • Former detainees in Xinjiang have described being subjected to indoctrination, sterilization and physical abuse. (nbc-2.com)
  • The coalition offered to work with the USCCB to design a solution to preserve voluntary sterilization in all mergers between Catholic and non-Catholic hospitals. (catholicsforchoice.org)
  • As part of the sale, Methodist was set to pick up the physician practices associated with both Tenet hospitals, six MedPost urgent care centers and all but one surgery center. (healthcaredive.com)
  • The Holy Father warned that our heritage of religious freedom faces grave threats from the radical secularism of political and cultural opinion leaders who are increasingly hostile to Christianity. (firstthings.com)
  • Moreover, they often restrict even the ability of hospital staff to provide patients with full information and referrals for care that conflict with religious teachings. (aclu.org)
  • Those difficulties are tied to both the fact that on the assumption that the number of admissions it is an illegal and clandestine practice, as well as for post-abortion complications is one third to one to the psychological, social, religious and cultural fifth of the total cases6. (bvsalud.org)