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More on the changed rules at Baptist after merger with St. Mary’s
Posted By katie allison granju
More details: vasectomies are also disallowed under the new operating guidelines.
As for emergency contraception for rape victims, the “morning after pill” will still be provided, after the victim has taken a pregnancy test to ensure the victim was not pregnant before the rape occurred.
Living wills and “do not resuscitate” orders will still be honored by both groups of hospitals.
Response from Rachel:
To be perfectly clear, I understand that private hospitals may have every right to perform only procedures that do not conflict with their religious missions, as patients are free to go elsewhere. I worry, however, about those women whose insurance dictates a provider list at hospitals that do not perform the procedures they need - those women are only free to choose another provider to the extent that they are able to pay out-of-network charges and another provider is available within an accessible distance and time frame. I grew up in a state where, with the exception of a handful of “cities,” each county might have one, maybe two, hospitals - these policies seem likely to disproportionately affect poor and rural women.
I also worry about the forcing of two surgical procedures when one would have sufficed. These hospitals are essentially telling women who need a c-section and wanted tubal ligation while their abdomens were already open, “Sorry, you’ll have to pay another OR fee, and accept the risks of another round of anesthesia, another round of surgery, another period of recovery, because we don’t believe in what you want to do.”
From Tennessee Guerilla Women:
My friend Cathy called me last week to say she was on her way from Kingsport to Knoxville to help her daughter Meghan find a different hospital for the imminent birth of Meghan’s third child. Why would she want to do that, I asked? “Because,” Cathy replied, “Meghan wants to have her tubes tied after the baby’s birth, and now that St. Mary’s has taken over Baptist Women’s Hospital, they no longer provide tubal ligations.”
“Whoa, whoa,” I said. “That can’t be right. It’s right there in the name: ‘Hospital for Women.’ It’s not possible they’re refusing to do a tubal ligation at a hospital intended specifically for women!”
Not only it is entirely possible, it’s true. According St. Mary’s spokesperson Debra London, quoted in today’s Knoxville News-Sentinel, the procedure is “at odds with Roman Catholic beliefs.” Thus, now that St. Mary’s Health System has merged with Baptist, this and other services are no longer available for women at any hospital within the Baptist Health System.
From The Crone Speaks:
…a hospital has the audacity to impose religious views of contraception on women, and that this imposition is being placed on women through buying up other hospitals. And, here it is in a nutshell — for the people that have health insurance that would otherwise cover tubal ligations performed by their doctor at Baptist hospital, are no longer given the option to make the determination of whether or not they want more children. Which means, if a woman and her husband/partner want a tubal ligation they will most likely have to pay for it at another area hospital, OUT OF POCKET, unless the insurance company approves the procedure at an “out-of-network” hospital.
Jan 27th, 2008
