Categories
Join Us At:
|
Act Now: Tell Kathleen Sebelius to Ensure Access to Abortions at Religiously Affiliated HospitalsEarlier this month, the ACLU asked the federal government to ensure that religiously affiliated hospitals provide emergency reproductive health care as required by the Emergency Medical Conditions and Women in Labor Act and the Conditions of Participation for hospitals receiving Medicare and Medicaid funds (PDF). Our letter was prompted by a situation in Phoenix, Arizona, where St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, a Catholic-owned hospital, provided a life-saving abortion to a young mother of four who was dying from pulmonary hypertension. The hospital's Ethics Committee determined that her physicians would be permitted to perform the abortion under the Ethical and Religious Directives under which Catholic hospitals operate. Though the hospital provided the necessary care in this instance, the Catholic hierarchy — via the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (PDF) and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix (PDF) — subsequently issued statements denouncing the emergency abortion, and making clear that abortion can essentially never be performed at a Catholic hospital. This means that the next woman who enters a Catholic hospital in need of an emergency abortion could die. You can read more about the issue here and here. We are now asking you to chime in too. Please send a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, asking her to investigate hospitals that refuse to provide emergency abortion care, and issue a bulletin making clear that refusing to provide this care violates federal law. (Cross-posted to Feministing and RH Reality Check.)
We intend the comments portion of this blog to be a forum where you can freely express your views on blog postings and on comments made by other people. Given that, please understand that you are responsible for the material you post on the comments portion of this blog. The only postings that we ask that you refrain from posting and that we cannot permit on our website are requests for legal assistance and postings that could cause ACLU to incur legal liability.
One important law in that regard is the prohibition on politically partisan activity. Given our nonprofit status, we may not endorse or oppose candidates for elective office. That means we cannot host comments on our site that show a preference for one candidate or party. Although we in no way wish to discourage you from that activity elsewhere, we ask that you not engage in that activity on our website (or include links to other websites that do so). Additionally, given that we are subject to very specific rules concerning the collection of personally identifying information through our website (names, email addresses, home address, financial information, etc.), we ask that you not use the comments portion of this blog to solicit this information from users of our website. We also ask that you not use the comments portion for advertising or requests for legal assistance, and do not add to your comment links to other websites, as we cannot be responsible for the content on other websites. We are not able to respond to unsolicited inquiries, complaints or requests for assistance sent to this blog. Please direct your complaint or request for assistance to the ACLU affiliate in your state. Requests for legal assistance left in the blog comments will not receive a response or be published. Finally, the ACLU cannot guarantee the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information in the comment section and expressly disclaims any liability for any information in this section. 5 Responses to "Act Now: Tell Kathleen Sebelius to Ensure Access to Abortions at Religiously Affiliated Hospitals" |
|
Earlier this month, the ACLU 
|
© ACLU, 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor New York, NY 10004 |
Jul 15th, 2010 at 12:51am
It strikes me as kind of strange that an organization that decries big government would be in support of this same government requiring religious organizations to perform procedures that are contrary to their beliefs.
Jul 25th, 2010 at 11:00pm
I read your supporting material there Brigitte; it's a bit of a dog's breakfast to assume that these together mean we can force people to perform abortions.
Jul 25th, 2010 at 11:01pm
I read your supporting material there Brigitte; it's a bit of a dog's breakfast to assume that these together mean we can force people to perform abortions.
Jul 25th, 2010 at 11:01pm
I read your supporting material there Brigitte; it's a bit of a dog's breakfast to assume that these together mean we can force people to perform abortions.
Jun 27th, 2011 at 4:58pm
Way to go on this essay, hleped a ton.