Tag: patients’ rights

Service Announcement for Journos

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A friendly reminder to all of us at the start of this new election cycle:  “Pro-life” means much, much more than just anti-abortion. It’s an entire set of beliefs leveled at legislating bodily autonomy.  For women, yes and most controversially, but also for the sick, the poor, the disabled, the terminal, gays, parents; in short, “pro-life” efforts impact health care access for all of us, regardless of our belief systems. So stories like this, at The Economist, are helpful but fall way short of the necessary discussion that should be taking place in the national media. Continue Reading →

Separation of Church and Health Care

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Francis X. Rocca of Religion News Service reports that the Vatican will write new guidelines for Catholic health care institutions in response to recent ideological clashes with the Catholic Health Association, notedly over the excommunication of a sister who approved an abortion to save the life of a woman and later the removal of Catholic standing for the hospital where she was treated.

Kevin Clarke at America Magazine (the national Catholic weekly) writes (rather rosily) that a series of communications and conference calls in January confirms that CHA and the USCCB are in agreement that the local bishop is the buck on ethical decisions at Catholic hospitals, but we suspect the clashes between the two organizations won’t so quickly be resolved. Continue Reading →

38 Years

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My naive questions on this anniversary of Roe v. Wade are: Why, when organized anti-abortion groups are predominantly evangelical/fundamentalist/orthodox Christian, are we not having a broader discussion about separation of church and state laws governing patients’ rights?  To do so would not undermine individual rights to personal or religious freedom.  Or is patient autonomy not the issue? Continue Reading →