What will the U.S. Bishops do to further restrict access to women's reproductive health care in 2015?

Check out this new article from ProPublica, which includes an interview with MergerWatch. The article highlights the growing impact of the Catholic ban on sterilizations such as tubal ligations which are the second most popular form of birth control for women in America. With the rise of partnerships between Catholic and Secular health care institutions, many women are losing access to this vital procedure. For over 16 years MergerWatch has been working with communities to find ways of protecting patients' rights and access to vital health care services like tubal ligations when non-religious hospitals propose mergers with religious health systems. You can support our efforts by making a year-end donation. Happy New Year!

Rise in Catholic-Sponsored Hospitals Threatens Women’s Health, New Report Finds

MergerWatch and the ACLU have released a report, Miscarriage of Medicine: The Growth of Catholic Hospitals and the Threat to Reproductive Health Care. 

The report looks at the increasing number of acute-care hospitals that are Catholic-sponsored or -affiliated and the expansion of Catholic-sponsored health systems in the United States between 2001 and 2011. It discusses the threat this growth poses to patient access to reproductive health services, including information and referrals.

The report further shows the degree to which these institutions rely on tax dollars, even as they limit medical care based on religious doctrine. At the same time, data also indicate that, despite their claims of service to the poor, Catholic-sponsored and -affiliated facilities actually provide only an average amount of charity care and a lower percentage of care to Medicaid patients than any other type of hospital.   

Among its key findings:

• Between 2001 and 2011, the number of Catholic-sponsored or –affiliated acute-care hospitals increased by 16%, while all other types of non-profit hospitals declined in numbers.
  
• By 2011, 10 % of all acute-care hospitals were Catholic-sponsored or –affiliated.
  
• About one in nine beds was in a Catholic –sponsored or –affiliated hospital in 2011.
  
• In 2011, 10 of the 25 largest health systems in the nation were Catholic sponsored.

In short, this report reveals how Catholic hospitals have left far behind their humble beginnings as facilities established by orders of nuns and brothers to serve the faithful and the poor. They have organized into large systems that behave like businesses – aggressively expanding to capture greater market share – but rely on public funding and use religious doctrine to compromise women’s health care.

The report also includes a number of recommendations, including to call on CMS to enforce requirements that all hospitals, regardless of religious affiliation, provide complete information about all treatment options and emergency care.

Please feel free to share the report. We hope this will advance our work for education and policy reform to ensure that patients’ health and rights are respected.

MergerWatch on Melissa Harris-Perry Show

MergerWatch's  Director Lois Uttley recently appeared on an episode of MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry Show to discuss Catholic hospital restrictions. The interview is below in two parts. Don't forget to check out the companion article on MSNBC's site about community resistance to Catholic/secular hospital mergers. It highlights the work of activists and providers involved with three important hospital merger cases in Sierra Vista, AZ; Abington, PA and Skagit County, WA.

Part 1

Part 2

Reflections on the Abington Victory

To mark the 1st anniversary of the Abington Memorial Hospital victory, we invited Rita Rosen Poley to reflect on the popular Stop the Abington Hospital Merger Facebook page she started in opposition to the proposed joint venture with Holy Redeemer Hospital.

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Abortion Services Saved in Little Rock

Great news out of Arkansas this summer! Officials have called a halt to a potential Catholic/public hospital partnership that was threatening reproductive health care for low-income women in Central Arkansas. The publicly-owned University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the Catholic St. Vincent Health System had announced their intention to explore an affiliation in an effort to better coordinate care, reduce costs and expand access to health care services. UAMS is the primary provider for low-income women in Central Arkansas, providing contraception and family planning services at its clinics, sterilization procedures and medically-indicated terminations at its main campus. The hospital is also the designated referral site for emergency support for the sole abortion provider in the state.

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