Hospital System Calls Itself ‘The Largest Catholic Health Ministry in the Country’

The ACLU is suing the largest Catholic health system in the world for its refusal last year to allow the simple yet essential procedure of tying the tubes of a pregnant woman who had a brain tumor to be performed. Because of its religion-based policies, Ascension Health and its subsidiary Genesys Health System allegedly refused to allow the tubal ligation to be performed during a C-section for Jessica Mann when she was pregnant with her third child. A tubal ligation would prohibit the woman from becoming pregnant in the future, but would also serve to help save her life during her pregnancy.

Ascension Health, which according to the lawsuit “receives billions of dollars each year in federal funding,”Â says it is has “more than 1,900 sites of care” and is the “nationâ€™s leading non-profit and faith-based health system, offering personalized, compassionate care for all in 24 states and the District of Columbia.” It calls itself “the largest Catholic health ministry in the country,” and says it is “transforming healthcare around the world.”

Mannâ€™s doctor recommended the tubal ligation because she has a brain tumor that could be life threatening, and pregnancy put unnecessary strain on it. Performing the sterilization procedure during a delivery is the safest and most effective way to do it because of the position the uterus is in after a woman gives birth.

The ALCU sent the hospital a letter before Mannâ€™s delivery, when she was 34 weeks pregnant and searching for a new doctor. Mannâ€™s doctor was unable to perform the surgery because she only had admitting privileges at Genesys hospital, which denied her request for an exception to the hospitalâ€™s religious ban.

â€œAt a time when I should have been focused on getting ready to bring my baby into the world, I instead had to frantically search for a new doctor and a new hospital to get the care I needed to protect my life, because the local hospital where I had been a patient for fifteen years forbid it,â€ Mann said.

Mann was featured in an ACLU report about Catholic hospitals standing in the way of healthcare for Americans.

According to the ALCU, the hospital violated the Affordable Care Actâ€™s regulation on sex discrimination by denying reproductive care to women.

Ascension Health adheres to the directives laid out by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). In addition to an almost blanket ban on tubal ligation, the directives ban surrogate parenting and fertility methods that donâ€™t require intercourse to be effective. There is a blanket ban on abortion and contraception. Vasectomies are also not permitted.

According to the Catholic Health Association of the United States, one in six American patients is treated in a Catholic hospital. All states currently allow Catholic hospitals to operate with these directives in place.

The ACLU has asked for women to share similar experiences on their website.Â

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