Approval for New Catholic Hospital in Maryland Raises Concerns About Access to Reproductive Healthcare

Catholics for Choice press release: Women’s Healthcare Services Now in Jeopardy as Catholic Entity Gets Go-ahead in Maryland, by David J. Nolan:

Today’s decision by the Maryland Health Care Commission to allow the Catholic entity, Holy Cross Hospital, to build a new facility in Montgomery County, Md., is troubling. Despite concerns from health advocates that the new hospital would be subject to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services and therefore not provide a full range of reproductive healthcare services, the commission decided to allow the Holy Cross bid to move forward.

While the Catholic healthcare system is an important provider of services throughout the US, the recent situation in Phoenix, Ariz., shows what can happen when bishops become involved in health-related decisions. The local bishop, Thomas Olmsted, intervened when a local Catholic hospital provided a life-saving abortion to a pregnant mother of four. Despite the opinion of a number of Catholic theologians and Catholic members of the hospital staff that the abortion was vital to save the woman's life, and therefore consistent with the directives that govern Catholic hospitals, Bishop Olmsted claimed he knew better, said the hospital was wrong to provide the abortion, and stripped the hospital of its Catholic designation. . . .