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In reply to the discussion: Why does every religion on the planet [View all]beam me up scottie
(57,349 posts)100. Oops, missed one: Catholic dominance over hospitals endangers women
Catholic dominance over hospitals endangers women
A public-health giant
Catholic hospitals provide care for 1 in 6 patients in the United States; they are, collectively, the largest not-for-profit health care provider in the country. As secular hospitals merge with Catholic ones, many health care organizations and the communities they serve are on edge. In Washington state, for example, mergers mean that nearly half of hospital beds are in facilities controlled or influenced by the church, and in many regions a Catholic hospital is the sole provider. Nationwide, Catholic health care providers grew by 16 percent from 2001 to 2011. The number of secular nonprofit hospitals dropped by 12 percent in that period; the number of public hospitals fell by 31 percent.
Catholic health care providers are bound by the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, a document issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that governs how health care providers should deal with reproductive issues, end-of-life care, the spiritual responsibility of Catholic health care and a variety of other concerns. The range of womens health care options that Catholic facilities offer is limited sometimes, like when a pregnancy goes wrong, to a deadly degree. And while most doctors have an ethical obligation to inform patients of all their options, Catholic facilities routinely refuse to offer even abortions necessary to save a pregnant womans life; their doctors are also barred from telling a patient with a nonviable pregnancy that there are other, often safer options available elsewhere, lest the patient seek care at another facility. (LGBT patients may also run into problems, whether it is with hormone therapy for transgender patients or simply the right of married same-sex partners to be treated as next of kin in making health care decisions).
***
But Catholic hospitals receive enormous amounts of state and federal funding, in the form of large tax exemptions, Medicare and Medicaid dollars and specific grants for certain types of care. In 2011, Catholic hospitals received $27 billion in public funding, not including tax breaks nearly half their revenue. Catholic hospitals employ and serve populations that are not predominantly Catholic. One-fifth (PDF) of physicians at religious hospitals reported facing a clinical ethical conflict in which their medical judgment was at odds with the hospitals religious policy. Because Catholic hospitals receive public funds and care for a diverse population, they should have a duty to serve the actual health needs of their patients and the ethical obligations of their staffs over church dogma.
Instead, they put the dogma first. As a result, rape victims are routinely refused emergency contraception in Catholic hospitals. Women with life-threatening ectopic pregnancies, which are easily ended by a shot of methotrexate or a minor surgery, often find an entire fallopian tube unnecessarily removed decreasing the odds of future pregnancy if they seek care at a Catholic facility. And, as Means discovered, even in life-threatening emergencies, Catholic hospitals regularly refuse to terminate pregnancies and may face penalties, including removal of church-affiliated status, if they do so to save the life of the mother. In one case in Arizona, a pregnant mother of four went to a Catholic hospitals emergency room with a condition so life-threatening that her chances of imminent death without an abortion were nearly certain. She was too ill to transfer to another facility, so the hospitals administrator, a nun, approved an emergency termination. The woman lived. The nun was excommunicated. Her standing with the church was eventually restored, but the hospital lost its 116-year affiliation with the Catholic Church.
Refusing to provide female patients with a full range of reproductive care is discrimination. Intentionally providing substandard care when safer, better options are available is monstrous. It means women see their bodies damaged, their fertility impaired and their lives threatened. Low-income women and women in rural areas face the greatest hardships, since they may have no other option for care except a Catholic hospital. Rural living means there may not be another hospital for miles. Poverty means finding a provider that accepts Medicaid and is nearby; distance equals more gas money or more time on public transportation and off work. For many women, the closest abortion clinic is hundreds of miles away. Religion should not be an excuse for public health institutions to discriminate so broadly and do such harm.
***
In reality, the so-called religious freedom of health care providers to accept massive federal and state funding while refusing to provide comprehensive health care violates womens bodies and endangers their health. The grossness of this discrimination and the dangers it poses become transparent in neighborhoods affected by mergers, where women in need of emergency care may not have the option of seeking out a non-Catholic hospital. If the Catholic Church sees women as second-class citizens and wants to continue barring them from positions of power within the church while fruitlessly demanding they abstain from contraception use and premarital sex, that is the churchs prerogative. But if they are working in the health care space, they must provide the most appropriate, humane and effective health care. Even to women
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/2/dangers-of-a-catholichospitaluntold.html
A public-health giant
Catholic hospitals provide care for 1 in 6 patients in the United States; they are, collectively, the largest not-for-profit health care provider in the country. As secular hospitals merge with Catholic ones, many health care organizations and the communities they serve are on edge. In Washington state, for example, mergers mean that nearly half of hospital beds are in facilities controlled or influenced by the church, and in many regions a Catholic hospital is the sole provider. Nationwide, Catholic health care providers grew by 16 percent from 2001 to 2011. The number of secular nonprofit hospitals dropped by 12 percent in that period; the number of public hospitals fell by 31 percent.
Catholic health care providers are bound by the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, a document issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that governs how health care providers should deal with reproductive issues, end-of-life care, the spiritual responsibility of Catholic health care and a variety of other concerns. The range of womens health care options that Catholic facilities offer is limited sometimes, like when a pregnancy goes wrong, to a deadly degree. And while most doctors have an ethical obligation to inform patients of all their options, Catholic facilities routinely refuse to offer even abortions necessary to save a pregnant womans life; their doctors are also barred from telling a patient with a nonviable pregnancy that there are other, often safer options available elsewhere, lest the patient seek care at another facility. (LGBT patients may also run into problems, whether it is with hormone therapy for transgender patients or simply the right of married same-sex partners to be treated as next of kin in making health care decisions).
***
But Catholic hospitals receive enormous amounts of state and federal funding, in the form of large tax exemptions, Medicare and Medicaid dollars and specific grants for certain types of care. In 2011, Catholic hospitals received $27 billion in public funding, not including tax breaks nearly half their revenue. Catholic hospitals employ and serve populations that are not predominantly Catholic. One-fifth (PDF) of physicians at religious hospitals reported facing a clinical ethical conflict in which their medical judgment was at odds with the hospitals religious policy. Because Catholic hospitals receive public funds and care for a diverse population, they should have a duty to serve the actual health needs of their patients and the ethical obligations of their staffs over church dogma.
Instead, they put the dogma first. As a result, rape victims are routinely refused emergency contraception in Catholic hospitals. Women with life-threatening ectopic pregnancies, which are easily ended by a shot of methotrexate or a minor surgery, often find an entire fallopian tube unnecessarily removed decreasing the odds of future pregnancy if they seek care at a Catholic facility. And, as Means discovered, even in life-threatening emergencies, Catholic hospitals regularly refuse to terminate pregnancies and may face penalties, including removal of church-affiliated status, if they do so to save the life of the mother. In one case in Arizona, a pregnant mother of four went to a Catholic hospitals emergency room with a condition so life-threatening that her chances of imminent death without an abortion were nearly certain. She was too ill to transfer to another facility, so the hospitals administrator, a nun, approved an emergency termination. The woman lived. The nun was excommunicated. Her standing with the church was eventually restored, but the hospital lost its 116-year affiliation with the Catholic Church.
Refusing to provide female patients with a full range of reproductive care is discrimination. Intentionally providing substandard care when safer, better options are available is monstrous. It means women see their bodies damaged, their fertility impaired and their lives threatened. Low-income women and women in rural areas face the greatest hardships, since they may have no other option for care except a Catholic hospital. Rural living means there may not be another hospital for miles. Poverty means finding a provider that accepts Medicaid and is nearby; distance equals more gas money or more time on public transportation and off work. For many women, the closest abortion clinic is hundreds of miles away. Religion should not be an excuse for public health institutions to discriminate so broadly and do such harm.
***
In reality, the so-called religious freedom of health care providers to accept massive federal and state funding while refusing to provide comprehensive health care violates womens bodies and endangers their health. The grossness of this discrimination and the dangers it poses become transparent in neighborhoods affected by mergers, where women in need of emergency care may not have the option of seeking out a non-Catholic hospital. If the Catholic Church sees women as second-class citizens and wants to continue barring them from positions of power within the church while fruitlessly demanding they abstain from contraception use and premarital sex, that is the churchs prerogative. But if they are working in the health care space, they must provide the most appropriate, humane and effective health care. Even to women
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/2/dangers-of-a-catholichospitaluntold.html
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Well they said she was a virgin but since there was no artificial insemination back then
malaise
Jan 2016
#18
Not a single one of my friends stayed in the Church after they were old enough to leave.
beam me up scottie
Jan 2016
#30
Thank you, kind fan. The Christians have no good answer for me on that.
Manifestor_of_Light
Jan 2016
#69
Some break free, more than a few DUers were raised as fundamentalist Christians.
beam me up scottie
Jan 2016
#68
Nope, it's not but they've made it their modern day crusade and they have the numbers to wage it.
beam me up scottie
Jan 2016
#115
Yes, many do but the only one powerful enough here to affect laws is Christianity.
beam me up scottie
Jan 2016
#119
"The RCC was behind every law restricting access to birth control, women's health clinics and
rug
Jan 2016
#82
Every recent law, splitting hairs about how involved the RCC is in restricting my rights?
beam me up scottie
Jan 2016
#85
Knowing the facts is not splitting hairs. And the issue is far greater than "your" rights.
rug
Jan 2016
#93
Anyone who feels he needs to defend the Church from its victims is no ally.
beam me up scottie
Jan 2016
#94
Has someone ordained you to declaim who is or who is not an ally of whatever you think you're doing?
rug
Jan 2016
#99
Oops, missed one: Catholic dominance over hospitals endangers women
beam me up scottie
Jan 2016
#100
The Church frames it as a religious war, rug and they wage it every day.
beam me up scottie
Jan 2016
#104
There it is! The word "religious", thanks for admitting that religion is the source.
beam me up scottie
Jan 2016
#106
Another uppity woman speaks: Beatriz Case Reveals Catholic Hierarchy’s War on Women
beam me up scottie
Jan 2016
#111
Your disregard of Pelosi suggests yorur real target here is not women's rights at all.
rug
Jan 2016
#112
My focus is the Church's war on women and guess who's leading the charge?:
beam me up scottie
Jan 2016
#114
You asked and I answered, my opinion is just as valid as Nancy's and counts for more than yours.
beam me up scottie
Jan 2016
#121
More: "Thank the Catholic church for terrifying abortion restrictions in Latin America"
beam me up scottie
Jan 2016
#107
Rightwing Watch: The Personhood Movement: Internal Battles Go Public
beam me up scottie
Jan 2016
#96
Yes there are female bodhisattvas (enlightened beings) in Buddhism.
Manifestor_of_Light
Jan 2016
#81
Until this year, The Presiding Bishop of the U.S. Episcopal church was Katharine Jefferts Schori...
Journeyman
Jan 2016
#24
Funny thing. Look up the origins of the goddess Columbia and her importance
Promethean
Jan 2016
#128
I think that's true for most institutions - the views of the dominant class prevail
malaise
Jan 2016
#49
And they are codified in texts considered to be hand made by God, backward norms made sacred
Bluenorthwest
Jan 2016
#76
The dictionary definition of the word squaw is "an American Indian Women". Had no idea
doc03
Jan 2016
#133
Movies? Of course one must base all one knows about First Nations people on movies.
Cleita
Jan 2016
#103
TPTB are also killing the planet AKA "Mother" Nature. They really hate women. nt
valerief
Jan 2016
#102
It's easier to justify injustice if you are guided by an invisible being whose will only you know
DFW
Jan 2016
#134
Because almost every religion codifies the existing power structure. eom.
Bad Thoughts
Jan 2016
#144
I think it's more like the power structure adopting and adapting what suits them
malaise
Jan 2016
#148
Yes. It's the outward show of the crux. The crux can be ferreted out. One theory is Marilyn French's
ancianita
Jan 2016
#149
Most of the ones that have gained and retained power were made up for that very reason.
Arugula Latte
Feb 2016
#165