How the Catholic Church May Affect Your Health

January 21, 2009

By Stacy Tressler

Throughout history the Roman Catholic Church has provided medical care all over the world to those in need. Traditionally in the United States the Catholic Church has operated mainly private hospitals but more recently they have been merging with or taking over public hospitals. Currently the Catholic Church runs 15% of the hospitals in the U.S. and are the nations largest single group of non-profit medical facilities. The Church has very strict views regarding reproductive health that affects everyone who walks through their doors. As the church merges with hospitals across the U.S. many women may not be aware of how church doctrine may affect their health until they are in a crisis situation. It is important for every woman to know the Catholic Church’s policies regarding reproductive health so that they can be prepared if IHS or their personal health insurance dictates that they must receive treatment from one of these facilities.

Hospitals that are run by the Catholic Church are guided by Christian values and they operate in compliance with the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (The Directives). These directives prohibit certain treatments or non-treatments such as:

• Euthanasia
• Abortion
• Non-medically necessary sterilization
• Miscarriage procedure
• Certain fertility treatments
• Birth control/contraception
  

While many women may know that the Church is against birth control and abortion, they may not know the finer details of these policies. These details are important because they have the potential to have the greatest effect on women who find themselves receiving care in the emergency room.

The Catholic Church believes that sex is for procreation purposes only and they are against all forms of birth control, including emergency contraception, because it makes sex for other reasons possible. Emergency contraception (E.C.) works in three ways: it prevents ovulation, it prevents egg fertilization or it can prevent the fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus however it cannot terminate an established pregnancy. The Church states that conception begins when an egg is fertilized by a sperm, which differs from the medical community who say that conception has occurred once a fertilized egg has fully attached to the uterus. Because of the Church’s beliefs about conception, the majority of their hospitals refuse to provide E.C. in the ER to rape victims. Some hospitals go as far as withholding information about E.C. and refusing to refer rape victims to a pharmacy or place that will provide them with E.C. If a woman has been raped or had unprotected sex the emergency room/hospital might be her only chance to prevent an unwanted pregnancy. A few states have passed laws that require E.C. to be provided in the E.R. upon request but currently South Dakota has not passed such a law.

The Church also has very strict policies regarding abortion that also include miscarriage management. The only time that abortion is allowed is if a woman’s life is clearly in danger. All Catholic owned hospitals have ethics committees that make the final decision about whether or not a woman’s life is truly at risk. This decision is not up to the medical professionals and many times the ethics committee goes against the doctor’s recommendations. A recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that in Catholic hospitals across the U.S., ethics committees refused to allow doctors to provide life saving treatment to women who were clearly miscarrying because fetal heart tones could still be detected (Freedman, Landy & Steinuaer, 2008). Doctor’s were forced to delay treatment until fetal heart tones could no longer be detected or they transport the patient to a non-Catholic hospital.

During a miscarriage, the decision to induce labor or surgically remove the fetus when heart tones are still present is a decision that should be made by the doctor and the patient, not a committee. If the membrane has ruptured or a woman is dilated and delivering a preterm fetus the doctor should be allowed to do everything in his/her power to ensure the health of the woman. Some doctors take matters into their own hands and go against the orders of the ethics committee, which puts them at risk of losing their job. According to Freedman et al. (2008) “In some Catholic owned hospitals, the private patient-physician relationship, patient safety and patient comfort are compromised by religious mandates that require physicians to act contrary to the current standard of care in miscarriage management.”

When it comes to reproductive health a woman should be allowed to make her own decisions based on her beliefs. Hospitals should put the conscience and religious freedom of the individual first and if they are not willing to do this then it is up to the law to protect a woman’s health. The restrictive hospital policies of the Catholic Church disproportionately affect poor and rural women who may not have the money or resources to go to another facility. As the Church continues to take over hospitals in the U.S. more women will find their reproductive choices limited by a doctrine and belief that is not their own.

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References:
Freedman, L., Landy, U. & Steinauer, J. - When there’s a heartbeat: Miscarriage management in Catholic owned hospitals. American Journal of Public Health, 2008, 98(10).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/christianethics/abortion_3.shtml
http://www.religioustolerance.org/abo_emer11.htm
http://womenshealthnews.wordpress.com/2008/01/27/reproductive-health-and-the-catholic-hospital-conundrum