The Assault on Catholic Health Care

By Maureen Kramlich
Special to the HERALD
(From the issue of 10/17/02)

What does it mean to be a Catholic hospital? This ministry was established for the purpose of serving those at the margins — the poor, especially women and children among the poor. The quality of health care was superb from the start: In the 1940s, the premier polio treatment center in the Midwest was developed by the Franciscan Sisters at St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Louis. The Sisters of Charity who founded St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City have provided excellent emergency care across two centuries, caring for victims from the Titanic in 1912 to the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

Catholic hospitals treat 80 million patients each year and make up 11 percent of all community hospitals. As abortion advocates are quick to point out, Catholic hospitals are often the only hospitals in rural communities. This is so because they operate not out of a profit motive but out of charity.

Today this legacy and this mission are being undermined by abortion advocates. For decades they have attempted to force Catholic hospitals to provide abortions or else go out of business. In recent years their tactics have become more subtle, and the campaign to deny Catholic health care providers their rights of conscience has met with some success.

Shortly after the Supreme Court handed down its 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, Congress took the important and necessary step of passing a law to protect health professionals and hospitals with conscientious objections to abortion. The law declares that the receipt of federal funds in various health programs will not require hospitals to participate in abortion and sterilization procedures. It also forbids hospitals in these programs to make willingness or unwillingness to perform these procedures a condition of employment.

The year after Roe, 27 states enacted laws protecting health care providers from being forced to participate in abortions. Two years later, five more states passed conscience protections. Today 45 states have laws protecting health care providers who conscientiously object to participating in abortion. Some states also protect providers who object to other kinds of procedures, such as euthanasia, sterilization, artificial insemination, abortifacient drugs and contraception. Federal law also protects health care providers who object to participating in federal executions. It is therefore clear that the principle of the right of conscientious objection is well recognized — but it is also increasingly under attack.

A recent report by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) titled, "Religious Refusals and Reproductive Rights," aims at requiring all hospitals, including Catholic hospitals, to provide abortions. The report asserts that because Catholic hospitals are involved in delivering a public good — health care — "they should play by public rules."

Today abortion rights activists are implementing a subtle and incremental strategy to undo conscience rights. For example, they have embarked on a campaign to mandate the coverage of contraception in all employer benefit plans for prescription drugs claiming that contraceptives are "basic health care."

Abortion rights advocates have also made some attempts to mandate the routine provision of "emergency contraception" to rape victims. Catholic teaching supports offering these drugs to rape victims when it is clear that the treatment would have a contraceptive rather than abortifacient effect.

Although only a few state legislatures are considering "emergency contraception" mandates, an organized national effort — the Abortion Access Project — which is trying to garner support for them is now operating in 24 states. It is clear from the project's materials, including fact sheets and resources on its website, that it has targeted Catholic hospitals.

Abortion advocates are desperate to legitimize abortion, which still carries a stigma in the medical profession and in society at large. Half of Americans consider abortion murder. Fewer than a thousand physicians perform them. Only 7 percent of abortions are performed in hospitals, and they are performed in just 14 percent of all hospitals.

Cardinal George movingly testified against the AMA proposal to requiring all hospitals to provide all "reproductive health services."

"Catholic hospitals cannot comply. Effectively, the American Medical Association is being asked to help abolish Catholic health care in this country," he said.

Because attempts to undermine conscience rights are advancing as mandates for other procedures such as contraception and "emergency contraception," comprehensive conscience laws are needed to protect health plans and hospitals from being forced to pay for and participate in these procedures. The laws should be comprehensive also in terms of protecting the full range of health care providers: hospitals, physicians, nurses, nursing students, medical students, and nurses' aides.

Defending such rights is not just a Catholic issue. It is a fundamental human right to refuse to take part in morally evil actions:

"To refuse to take part in committing an injustice is not only a moral duty; it is also a basic human right…Those who have recourse to conscientious objection must be protected not only from legal penalties but also from any negative effects on the legal, disciplinary, financial and professional plane" (Pope John Paul II, The Gospel of Life, no. 74).

Catholics must campaign in support of conscience rights on the state, local and federal levels. We should support community hospitals and health centers with pro-life policies. We should lobby on behalf of stronger state and federal conscience laws, and write letters to our state and federal representatives opposing contraceptive and "emergency contraception" mandates.

Real freedom and pluralism, as well as the sanctity of human life, will be among the casualties if they succeed.

Kramlich is public policy analyst for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities.

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