MUSKEGON, MI - A federal judge in Grand Rapids has dismissed a Muskegon woman's ACLU-backed lawsuit that claimed Catholic anti-abortion doctrine caused her to receive improper care at Muskegon's Mercy Health Partners before she miscarried in 2010.

The ACLU immediately filed a notice of appeal to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Tamesha Means, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Michigan, in November 2013 sued the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. She also sued three chairs or former chairs of Catholic Health Ministries, the organization that in 2000 established Mercy Health parent Trinity Health Corp. She did not sue the hospital or Trinity Health.

The ACLU-drafted lawsuit contended Means "suffered severe, unnecessary, and foreseeable physical and emotional pain and suffering" because of policy directives set by the bishops and enforced at Mercy and other Catholic hospitals.

The lawsuit sought damages and a declaration that the conference's actions were negligent, "not only to provide a remedy for the trauma she suffered, but also to prevent other women in her situation from suffering similar harm in the future," in the words of the legal complaint.

The policies at issue are called Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. They prohibit pre-viability pregnancy termination and informing patients that deliberate termination is a medical option.

Mercy Health, owned by Trinity Health, runs the only two Muskegon County hospitals, the Mercy campus and the Hackley campus.

On Tuesday, June 30, U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell dismissed the lawsuit without a hearing on the evidence. He based his opinion on written briefs submitted by both sides.

Bell cited two basic reasons for the dismissal:

Michigan federal courts have no jurisdiction over the bishops' conference for policy directives issued by the Washington, D.C.-based organization.

It's improper for courts to interfere in religious doctrinal decisions, which Bell concluded was behind the anti-abortion policy directives. Considering the Muskegon woman's negligence claim would "impermissibly intrude upon ecclesiastical matters," the judge wrote in his opinion.

Bell noted that Means still had recourse in the courts to sue doctors or hospitals for medical malpractice if she received inadequate medical care - but not, the judge concluded, to sue a religious organization or officials for their religious doctrine.

"It is not up to the Court to mandate the larger structural and policy reform to Catholic hospitals that Plaintiff seeks; that issue is left to the Church and its tribunals," Bell wrote.

In a statement released June 30 by the ACLU, Means was quoted as saying, "With all I've gone through, this decision is a devastating blow to deal with. But I will continue to stand up and speak for every woman who's suffered like I have at the hands of religiously affiliated hospitals. And I will keep working toward the day when the people responsible for our trauma will be held accountable."

According to the lawsuit, Means was 18 weeks pregnant - a little more than four months -- in 2010 when her water broke. She made three visits to a Mercy emergency room within a couple of days with pain and other symptoms and was not informed that pregnancy termination was an option. On the third visit, with an infection-induced fever and while about to be discharged again, she delivered a baby who died within three hours.

The ACLU lawsuit contended that Catholic doctrine incorporated in the bishops' policy directives prevented Means from getting appropriate care. The ACLU claims her care was negligent because the policy prevents staff from telling her "that terminating her pregnancy was an option and the safest course for her condition."

According to the ACLU, Means was in "excruciating pain," continuing her pregnancy posed "significant risks to her health," and she suffered "extreme distress" and an infection that can cause infertility.

After Means filed her lawsuit, the bishop conference's president denied that the conference's church-based doctrines amount to negligence.

According to that statement, the Catholic Ethical and Religious Directives prohibit abortion but allow operations, treatments and medications for a pregnant woman to treat a "proportionately serious pathological condition," even if doing so causes the unintentional death of the child.

In its brief opposing the lawsuit, the Catholic Conference called the ACLU-sponsored lawsuit a "contorted attempt to deprive Defendants of their constitutionally protected rights to religious freedom and free speech."

John S. Hausman covers courts, prisons, the environment and local government for MLive/Muskegon Chronicle. Email him at jhausman@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter.