Catholic hospitals’ progress impacts reproductive well being care

Putnam, Conn. — At the same time as quite a few Republican-governed states push for sweeping bans on abortion, there’s a coinciding surge of concern in some Democratic-led states that choices for reproductive well being care are dwindling as a result of enlargement of Catholic hospital networks.

These are states resembling Oregon, Washington, California, New York and Connecticut, the place abortion will stay authorized regardless of the U.S. Supreme Courtroom’s current ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.

Considerations in these blue states pertain to such providers as contraception, sterilization and sure procedures for dealing with being pregnant emergencies. These providers are extensively out there at secular hospitals however typically forbidden, together with abortion, at Catholic amenities beneath the Moral and Non secular Directives set by the U.S. Convention of Catholic Bishops.

Residents from various communities in mostly rural northeastern Connecticut stage a protest outside Day Kimball Hospital, Monday, July 18, 2022 in Putnam, Conn.

The differing views on these providers can conflict when a Catholic hospital system seeks to accumulate or merge with a non-sectarian hospital, as is going on now in northeastern Connecticut. State officers are assessing a bid by Catholic-run Covenant Well being to merge with Day Kimball Healthcare, an unbiased, financially struggling hospital and well being care system primarily based within the city of Putnam.

“We have to be sure that any new possession can present a full vary of care — together with reproductive well being care, household planning, gender-affirming care and end-of-life care,” mentioned Connecticut Legal professional Normal William Tong, a Democrat.

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