Judge to Hospital: It's OK to Say No
A Catholic hospital in California doesn’t have to perform a tubal ligation procedure on a woman who requested it because it would violate the hospital’s religious freedom, a judge has ruled.
"Religious-based hospitals have an enshrined place in American history and its communities, and the religious beliefs reflected in their operation are not to be interfered with by courts at this moment in history," Superior Court Judge Ernest Goldsmith said. The judge said that she could have the procedure performed elsewhere.
Rebecca Chamorro, 33, filed suit while pregnant with her third child. She wanted to require Mercy Medical Center in Redding to perform the procedure after her delivery. Her attorney had argued that tubal ligation is safest when performed immediately after delivery.
Another postpartum contraceptive option — long-acting reversible contraception — will be discussed in the March issue of Contraceptive Technology Update.
Dignity Health, which operates the hospital, took the position that tubal ligation would violate the hospital's right to freedom of religion and isn’t medically necessary.
"There's no law ... that would support this kind of intrusion on a Catholic hospital’s observance of ethical and religious directives," Barry Landsberg, an attorney who represented Dignity Health, told the judge.