By Brendan O'Brien

Dec 2 (Reuters) - A Michigan woman has sued the U.S.

Catholic bishops, arguing that a Catholic hospital in Michigan

denied her adequate treatment during a painful miscarriage

because of a policy banning even the discussion of abortion as

an option.

Tamesha Means said she went to a Catholic hospital in

Muskegon, Michigan, the only hospital within 30 minutes of her

home, when her water broke in December 2010 after only 18 weeks

of pregnancy, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in Detroit

federal court.

Despite her being in excruciating pain and with virtually no

chance her pregnancy could survive, Mercy Health Partners told

Means there was nothing it could do and did not tell Means that

terminating her pregnancy was an option and the safest course

for her condition, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit accuses the United States Conference of Catholic

Bishops of creating health care directives "that cause pregnant

women who are suffering from a miscarriage to be denied

appropriate medical care, including information about their

condition and treatment options."

About 15 percent of the 800,000 beds in the U.S. are in a

Catholic hospital, according to the Catholic Health Association.

In those hospitals, medical professionals must comply with the

bishops' directives, which prohibit suggesting or performing

abortions.

In complying with the directives, medical professionals at

the hospital failed to follow the standard of medical care,

which required them to provide Means with treatment, inform her

of her options and the risks associated with her condition, the

lawsuit said.

Don Clemmer, a spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic

Bishops, the organization representing the Catholic hierachy in

the United States, said the organization would not comment on

the lawsuit at this time.

The American Civil Liberties Union is representing Means in

the lawsuit.

"They never offered me any options," Means said in a

statement released by the ACLU. "They didn't tell me what was

happening to my body. Whatever was going on with me, they

discussed it amongst themselves. I was just left to wonder,

what's going to happen to me?"

Means returned to the hospital a third time with an

infection. The ACLU said she began to deliver as the hospital

prepared again to send her home and she eventually miscarried.

In late 2010, Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix stripped the

Catholic designation from St. Joseph's Hospital there, after

doctors performed an emergency first-trimester abortion to save

the life of a pregnant woman who had perilously high blood

pressure.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by David

Bailey and Andrew Hay)