Catholic Hospitals Threaten the Lives of Pregnant Women

Did You Know?

• Your Catholic hospital will not complete a miscarriages no matter what the cause and no matter what the risks to the mother?
• The emergency rooms at these same hospitals turn women away in the midst of a miscarriage even when a failure to properly treat the mother could lead to the mother’s death?
• In the event that the mother remains in one of these facilities, these hospitals will delay treatment until the very last heartbeat of the child even if it kills the mother and there was never any hope of saving the child?
• These hospitals prohibit doctors from providing any guidance to the patient on what to do or where to go next when they are tossed out?
• The hospitals are not required to meet basic standards of care for doctors in an emergency miscarriage situation (i.e. they are license to commit medical malpractice in women’s health)?
• That there are communities in New Mexico that have no other choice but to use the Catholic hospital because that is the only hospital?
• There is a bill working its way through the New Mexico Senate (SB 282) that would prohibit medical malpractice in the name of religion that needs your voice? Speak up now to insure its passage.  Go here to find your legislators:  https://www.nmlegis.gov/Members/Find_My_Legislator.

We at Collins and Collins, P.C. were just as shocked as you must be right now when we first learned of this gross medical malpractice in the name of the Lord. Not only is it shocking from a legal perspective but also in the fact that Catholic teachings themselves preach the sanctity and protection of life. Yet the lives of mothers are not worthy of this protection in the eyes of Catholic hospitals even in their moment of greatest need and vulnerability.

Medical Malpractice: Catholic Hospitals and Private Doctors

All hospital emergency rooms are subject to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). EMTALA was enacted to prevent “patient dumping” which was and is the refusal of treatment for the poor and uninsured. EMTALA covers all hospitals, including Catholic hospitals, that receive federal funding. All Catholic hospitals receive federal funding. Given the fact that 1 in 6 hospitals is Catholic, in the aggregate Catholic hospitals receive many billions of dollars in federal funding including but not limited to Medicare and Medicaid.

EMTALA requires that patients be treated in a medically professional manner which would include treatment in cases of miscarriages that threaten the life of the mother. Yet, they under the cover of the Lord, hide behind the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. And they do so successfully time and time again.

However, New Mexico has very specific laws regarding the behavior of medical providers whether they are hospitals, doctors, nurses, physicians’ assistants or anyone else. And refusing to treat, stabilize, transfer or even advise a mother suffering a miscarriage breaches each and every one of the rules governing medical providers.

What Can You Do?  Sue Them All!

Collins & Collins, P.C. for one welcomes the opportunity to hold both the Catholic hospitals and the medical providers practicing in those hospitals to account. This threat to women’s health and lives cannot be tolerated. It is a gross and disgusting bastardization of the teachings of the Lord. We will go after the hospitals, the doctors, the nurses and anyone else that puts a pregnant woman out to die on religious grounds.

Perhaps the Catholic hospitals will escape liability in the end, but the private doctors  and other medical providers guiding their patients toward certain ruin in the case of a miscarriage will not.

Collins & Collins, P.C. can be reached at (505) 242-5958.

Doubt This Article?

Here is some reading to relieve your doubt:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/judystone/2016/05/07/health-care-denied-at-550-hospitals-because-of-catholic-doctrine/

https://www.aclu-nm.org/en/news/health-care-denied-new-mexico

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-growth-of-catholic-hospitals-by-the-numbers

https://www.aclu.org/report/report-health-care-denied?

On a final note, please support the ACLU.  As one great lady once said, Women’s Rights are Human Rights and the ACLU is hard at work making this a reality in women’s health.