Mergers of Catholic, secular hospitals limit reproductive services

Some in Gilroy, California, including a Catholic doctor, say church doctrine should not limit health care choices

October 1, 1999
Web posted at: 8:35 p.m. EDT (0035 GMT)

From Medical Correspondent Eileen O'Connor

GILROY, California (CNN) -- The merger of a local California hospital with a Catholic health care firm is sparking controversy after the new management decided to restrict birth control, abortion and sterilization services that go against Catholic doctrine.

While officials of Catholic Healthcare West say they will still refer women seeking reproductive services to other facilities, critics say the change will force low-income women to make a 50-minute drive to a county hospital that many can't manage.

"If you don't have a car, or the car broke down, or you have to go on the bus or you aren't feeling well or you have two or three kids in tow ... they don't go, and they don't get the tubal ligation," says Suellen Towlison, a public health nurse and member of the Gilroy City Council.

Mergers of Catholic and non-Catholic hospitals have resulted in some restrictions on reproductive health care services offered at the hospitals

According to the group Catholics For A Free Choice, nearly half of the mergers between Catholic and non-Catholic hospitals in recent years have resulted in restrictions on reproductive services.

According to U.S. government figures, 88 Catholic hospitals are the only hospitals in the counties where they are located. Because low-income women use hospitals as their main source of health care, critics charge the restrictions on reproductive services unfairly deny those women access to contraception.

"We need to demand that health care institutions are accountable to the public health of the community, to the community itself, to doctors, to consumers and not to bishops," says Frances Kissley of Catholics For A Free Choice.

But Wade Rose, vice president of Catholic Healthcare West, said, "The values are very strong, and compromise is a difficult word."