Violations of women's human rights when a community is reliant on a Catholic hospital for care

Religiously-motivated health care professionals have invoked their conscience right to refuse care where it conflicts with their beliefs, notably in the area of reproductive health. Institutional providers affiliated with religious entities have claimed this same mantle of conscience to prohibit a range of reproductive health care services in hospitals, clinics and affiliated practices. These actions threaten women's human rights, including access to reproductive health care, freedom from discrimination, and the rights to life, self-determination and information. They also infringe on clinicians' right to practice their profession, and, in so doing, defend women's reproductive rights.

A human rights fact-finding investigation was undertaken to document violations of women's rights where a community is reliant on a Catholic hospital for care. Interviews were conducted with physicians and nurses, patients, public health experts and hospital administrators in three communities in Arizona, Illinois and Michigan. Diminished or denied access was reported across a range of services: contraception, including emergency contraception and sterilization; pregnancy care, including ectopic pregnancies and miscarriage management; and access to abortion, particularly in cases of severe fetal anomalies. In addition, clinicians reported being unable to carry out their professional and ethical responsibilities to provide the medical standard of care to patients, or being forced to defy hospital policies, at the risk of their employment or hospital privileges, in order to provide essential reproductive health services to women.