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ACLU sues U.S. Bishops over anti-abortion directives for Catholic hospitals
The Daily Caller ^ | December 3, 2013 | Caroline May

Posted on 12/03/2013 9:27:00 AM PST by Rufus2007

The American Civil Liberties Union and its Michigan affiliate are suing the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops charging that its anti-abortion religious dictates resulted in a Michigan woman’s dangerous miscarriage.

The ACLU filed the lawsuit Friday on behalf of Tamesha Means, a pregnant woman whose water broke 18 weeks into her pregnancy and who sought medical aid at Mercy Health Partners in Muskegon, Mich., a Catholic hospital.

According to the ACLU, while Means’ baby had virtually no chance of survival, the hospital sent her home twice without offering termination as an option, “even though [Means] was in excruciating pain; there was virtually no chance that her pregnancy could survive, and continuing the pregnancy posed significant risks to her health.”

On her third visit to the hospital, according to the civil liberties group, Means was about to be discharged from the hospital when she began to deliver the child. At that point, the group says, the hospital delivered the baby.

According to Louise Melling, the ACLU’s deputy legal director, the “baby died within hours of being born—at 18 weeks, it never had a chance.”

http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/03/aclu-sues-u-s-bishops-over-anti-abortion-directives-for-catholic-hospitals/

(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Religion
KEYWORDS: aclu; bishops; catholic
I am not Catholic, but I am pro-life and predisposed to distrust the ACLU....But when I go to a hospital I do expect to be provided with the best care possible and all the guidance available. Not sure where to come down on this story... thoughts??
1 posted on 12/03/2013 9:27:00 AM PST by Rufus2007
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To: Rufus2007
Where to come down on this issue? It is easy. Abortion kills a baby. Pure and simple logic is one adheres to simple biology.

Prior to the insanity of the liberal/progressive thought agenda, people and entities were free to set up business and do business as there moral beliefs directed, as long as it was lawful.

But that is where everything has been changed. The immoral has been made lawful, and that which was moral is now unlawful.

Does this reasoning/logic help you any? Plus, for your information, I am Catholic. And let me say this about that. The bishops and priests are supposed to be the soldiers that defend morality. But, as Cardinal Dolan has said, the other side has continually out maneuvered them. When the bishops and priests take up any of these issues, the 'ball has passed the plate', 'the horses are out of the barn', or 'the cat has already left the bag' and can't be put back in again.

2 posted on 12/03/2013 9:36:39 AM PST by Parmy
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To: Rufus2007
>> Not sure where to come down on this story... thoughts??

Abortion is not health-care.

Abortion is the deliberate, unnecessary killing of an innocent human person.

Now ...

Where do you come down on this story?

3 posted on 12/03/2013 9:39:11 AM PST by NorthMountain
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To: Rufus2007
Who forced her to use a Catholic hospital?
4 posted on 12/03/2013 9:39:44 AM PST by Boston Blackie
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To: Rufus2007

My secular objection is to not murder the most innocent among us.
My religious view is summed-up in Deuteronomy 30:19.


5 posted on 12/03/2013 9:42:14 AM PST by onedoug
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To: Rufus2007

Mercy Hospital appears to be THE hospital for Muskegon.

The danger of miscarriage to the mother at 18 weeks is primarily from infection if the amniotic membrane is ruptured and the miscarriage does not quickly complete. There is also some danger of hemorrhage, which is present in every delivery.

Hospitals will generally not attempt to prolong a pregnancy if the membranes rupture before 20 weeks - it is very probable the mother will become infected before the baby is viable.

I would think monitoring the mother, giving pain relief, and delivering the child at the first sign of infection would be appropriate.

Some women have managed to escape infection and deliver healthy babies with an amniotic leak. They’re generally kept in hospital.

If the miscarriage has started (cervical dilation, contractions, minimal bleeding) but the amniotic membranes have not ruptured, I think it would be medically acceptable from the physical point of view alone to send the woman home, just as women are sent home if they arrive full term at the earliest stages of labor. Whether it’s acceptable psychologically is another question.


6 posted on 12/03/2013 9:45:17 AM PST by heartwood
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To: NorthMountain

Abortion is not health care.

Should the ACLU succeed in suing US Bishops, they may be opening the barn door to similar lawsuits against Islamic doctrine as well.


7 posted on 12/03/2013 9:46:10 AM PST by wtd
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To: Boston Blackie

11 Hospitals or Healthcare Centers in Muskegon.


8 posted on 12/03/2013 9:46:30 AM PST by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
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To: heartwood

Appleview Women’s Healthcare 684 Harvey St. Muskegon, MI.


9 posted on 12/03/2013 9:49:15 AM PST by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
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To: massgopguy

Most of which are either Mercy affiliates or not full hospitals.


10 posted on 12/03/2013 9:49:34 AM PST by heartwood
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To: massgopguy

Appleview is an ob-gyn office. Doesn’t mean they deliver babies there or perform abortions at 18 weeks. Doesn’t mean they take on a patient with complications in the 18th week of pregnancy. Doesn’t mean they take a patient who may not be insured.


11 posted on 12/03/2013 9:51:45 AM PST by heartwood
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To: wtd

Are you attempting to equate opposition to baby-murder with “islamic doctrine” (whatever that may mean)?

BTW, the islamics generally oppose abortion. It’s one of the few things they get rignt. Perhaps the only thing. US Government supports abortion. Finances it, even.

How’s that for screwed up?


12 posted on 12/03/2013 10:00:12 AM PST by NorthMountain
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To: Rufus2007

Perfect!

The ACLU bullies have met an adversary unwilling to back down to their thug tactics.

Need to add those guys to the list belonging in jail.


13 posted on 12/03/2013 10:02:03 AM PST by G Larry (Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Psalms 109:8)
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To: heartwood

This will get tossed.


14 posted on 12/03/2013 10:05:04 AM PST by darkangel82
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To: Rufus2007

From the US conference of Catholic Bishops:

Operations, treatments and medications that have as their direct purpose the cure of a proportionately serious pathological condition of a pregnant woman are permitted when they cannot be safely postponed until the unborn child is viable, even if they will result in the death of the unborn child.[3]

That means if there is a hint of amnionitis, which is a very serious infection that can progress rapidly and lead to septicemia in the mother, the baby can be delivered without direct injury, even if the early delivery leads to its death.

The hospital may have incorrectly interpreted this directive, or the physicians may have judged that the mother although in pain and emotional distress was not in imminent physical danger.


15 posted on 12/03/2013 10:05:12 AM PST by heartwood
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To: heartwood

Other articles say she was given medication - presumably antibiotics, and possibly pain meds.


16 posted on 12/03/2013 10:09:28 AM PST by heartwood
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To: Rufus2007

Catholic hospitals do it the Catholic way. Create a satanic hospital or an ACLU hospital if you want it another way.

Catholic way, if it is to be born and die, the baby will be born and die. You have time to spend with your baby until he goes back to God. God decides when he dies, not the hospital, intentionally.


17 posted on 12/03/2013 10:11:12 AM PST by If You Want It Fixed - Fix It
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To: Rufus2007

If this wasn’t a setup to trap the hospital and lay the foundation for a lawsuit, then the practice will soon become one. There are other hospital choices.


18 posted on 12/03/2013 11:00:43 AM PST by DPMD
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To: Rufus2007

The ACLU would not get involved in a medical malpractice case unless they were driving some dark, seedy agenda behind it.


19 posted on 12/03/2013 11:52:18 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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