Posted on 05/01/2007 5:42:17 AM PDT by NYer
The Connecticut state Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill Wednesday April 25 that would require all hospitals — including the four Catholic facilities — to provide the Plan B emergency contraceptive to rape victims. The abortifacient drug is also known as the morning after pill. “This bill is a violation of the separation of Church and State,” wrote Bishops Henry Mansell of Hartford and William Lori of Bridgeport in a letter to lawmakers on Wednesday. “The Catholic Bishops of Connecticut are responsible for establishing and determining what moral guidelines Catholic institutions should follow; not the Connecticut General Assembly.” “Senate Bill 1343 should contain language that respects the religious beliefs of Catholic hospitals and not force them to cooperate, either directly or through a third-party contract, in an abortion,” they said. The bill, which passed 32-3, now heads to the House, where it appears likely to pass, reported the Journal Inquirer. The bill allows hospitals to first give patients a pregnancy test. Those with religious or other objections could hire an outside physician to administer the contraceptive rather than assign that duty to hospital staff. The Connecticut Catholic Conference rejected the measure, saying that hiring a physician outside of regular staff would not undo the ethical concern. "It is clear to us that this approach would involve the hospital in a way that would violate Catholic moral principles of cooperation," the bishop wrote. "It would still involve Catholic hospitals in the performance of early abortions by administering Plan B when the medication cannot act solely as a contraceptive." The state's four Catholic hospitals — St. Francis, St. Raphael, St. Vincent, and St. Mary — do not provide the contraceptive if a woman is ovulating or pregnant. The Catholic hospitals have argued that the Plan B contraceptive could cause an abortion by preventing the implantation of a fertilized egg. Catholic teaching holds that human life begins at conception. “Catholic hospitals provide emergency contraception to rape victims in the vast majority of cases,” the bishops noted in their letter. “In fact, it is an extreme rarity when this medication would not be provided.” Senate Minority Leader Louis DeLuca (R-Woodbury), Sen. Daniel Debicella (R-Shelton), and Donald DeFronzo (D-New Britain) opposed the bill. DeLuca had proposed an amendment, which was endorsed by the Catholic Conference, would require every hospital to have a written protocol for dealing with rape victims. Hospitals would be allowed to refer such patients to other facilities, but would have to report their reasons for doing so to the Department of Public Health. “Catholic hospitals, in those rare cases, would provide the patient information on where the medication is available and provide transportation to another hospital if the patient requests a transfer. Outside rape crisis counselors are also available from outside the hospitals if the patient requests their support,” the bishops said. DeLuca did not succeed in getting the amendment passed.
Since this article is from Spero news, a decidedly Catholic site, shouldn’t it be in Religion instead of news?
AMEN.
-when they worship at the altar of abortion, they cannot reason well to begin with.
“This bill is a violation of the separation of Church and State,” wrote Bishops Henry Mansell of Hartford and William Lori”
If the Bishop is so concerned about the separation of church and state, these Catholic hospitals should not be involved with the state via their acceptance of government money.
“As long as they run the hospitals with taxpayers’ dollars, they have to follow the taxpayers’ rules, just like any other institution that uses taxpayers’ dollars.”
Bingo.
If the hospitals in question do not want to be subject to such government interference, they should cease accepting any government money. Period. Then they should be free to succeed or fail on their own merits and of their own policies and procedures.
“As long as they run the hospitals with taxpayers’ dollars, they have to follow the taxpayers’ rules, just like any other institution that uses taxpayers’ dollars.”
Yup. If you take gov’t $ you will be forced to follow their rules.
If there were no other recourse, I would agree, but the hospital can still stay open and simply refuse until an inevitable showdown occurs. Meanwhile, during that time, legitimate healthcare can still be provided.
This story is being covered by various news outlets. Regardless of which source, the thread is News, not Religion. It belongs in the News/Activism Forum.
How do you figure that? As best I know Catholic hospitals do not take government monies, just like Catholic schools do not take government monies either.
BTW you seemed misnamed, sound more like an enabler then a shrinker.
The administering of Plan B, which is what this article is about, requires no surgery.
What a load of codswallop.
The pusillanimity of the American Public never ceases to amaze me. I wonder how many Americans have ever the read the Constitution?
“A good start would be to publicly excommunicate every Catholic member of the Connecticut Legislature who voted for the bill and every Catholic politician who supports it.”
A GOOD start.
Next:
“The best option for the Church is to keep the hospitals open and simply refuse to distribute. It will force a confrontation”
“In other words, telling the legislature, “MAKE US!”
Might add, “Go to hell”, that’s where their are headed.
When will the people stand against imorality in our laws?
Of course not, but I am sure that this hospital had to sign provider contracts with the state and the Medicare intermediary in order to recieve Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement. Not quite the same thing as the McDonalds example.
It would be wonderful if this Catholic hospital would drop out of the government system and treat the truly poor on a charity basis. But don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen.
They have similar arrangements with all insurance plans. That doesn't mean that Blue Cross therefore can dictate what a Catholic hospital must do.
Like I said, codswallop.
Do these hospitals accept medicaid money?
If the state added to that application that "the provider shall not deny to any patient the provision of services which are covered by the program and which the provider is licensed and certified to provide" it would in effect tell the hospital to dispense the abortion pill.
It's the fear of political and public pressure, not any legal or contractual issue, which has kept the state from doing so.
Until now I guess. I still think it would be a good idea for hospitals and doctors to drop out of the Medicare/Caid systems - it would be great for health care in the long run and this issue could be a catalyst.
So we leave the hospital open and allow the state to start dictating faith?
Hey Noob, how do you make the leap to conclude that a CLOSED hospital "kills" people? It's an inamimate object and can't kill anyone.
I don’t think government should be funding healthcare at all. But the fact is that these hospitals, just like all other full-service private hospitals in the country, get a huge percentage of their revenues directly from Medicare, Medicaid, and state governments. They haven’t shown the slightest interest in giving up those revenue sources, so they have no business whining about the rules that are attached to the money.
Then you certainly won’t mind if university and independent research facilities that rely heavily on government funds do embryonic stem cell research. As it stands now, these facilities have to spend a lot of extra money and go through all sorts of inefficient contortions to keep an absolute wall between their main operations that receive government funding and the small parts which involve embryonic stem cell research and don’t get any federal funding. The researchers aren’t allowed to share any lab equipment, and in some cases aren’t even allowed to share information between each other. This is all due to Catholic and other religion-based forces organizing to get a law passed prohibiting federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Once they got the law passed, they demanded it be enforced to the letter, notwithstanding the beliefs of the researchers in all the facilities. But now they don’t want the taxpayer-funding connection to force THEM to comply with the law. They think regulations tied to government funding should apply to other people, but not to them. Won’t fly.
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