ACLU Trying to Shut Down Catholic Hospitals Because They Refuse to Do Abortions

The ACLU has been losing in court time after time as it attempts to force Catholic hospitals to violate their religious beliefs and abort unborn babies.

The ACLU has been losing in court time after time as it attempts to force Catholic hospitals to violate their religious beliefs and abort unborn babies. Now it’s trying to win in the court of public opinion.

Here is more from the Baptist Press:

Grazie Pozo Christie, a Miami-area radiologist and a Catholic, said claims of care being denied are false.

“When a woman’s life is in danger, any treatment that a woman needs will be provided to her, even if it endangers the child,” Christie told WORLD News Service. “So there is no point in a Catholic hospital at which a woman’s life becomes really in danger.”

The ACLU report profiles four women and several doctors disgruntled with Catholic hospitals for either refusing to induce labor during a miscarriage, until the baby’s heartbeat stopped, or for not performing tubal ligations. One woman profiled in the report blasted the hospital that refused to abort her baby when her water broke 18 weeks into her pregnancy. She eventually went into labor and the baby did not survive. One doctor recalled an abortion she performed on a woman who was shocked to find out she was pregnant, not realizing the Catholic hospital she previously used ignored her sterilization request.

Christie noted none of the cases included in the report involved doctors putting women in danger.

LifeNews has reported about some of these women’s lawsuits in the past. In April, a federal court threw out an ACLU lawsuit against Trinity Health Corporation, a Catholic health system that refused to abort unborn babies who supposedly were near death.

In January, a judge also awarded a temporary victory to a Catholic hospital in California after the ACLU sued on behalf of a woman who requested sterilization. Rebecca Chamorro, 33, requested to be sterilized after her scheduled c-section in late January, but the hospital told her it would not perform the procedure, LifeNews previously reported. Catholic doctrine prohibits contraception, including permanent sterilization like a tubal ligation or vasectomy. The Daily Caller reported the ACLU filed a similar lawsuit against another Catholic hospital last August.

The new ACLU report is meant to cause alarm among the general public by accusing these prevalent, faith-based hospitals of denying women “reproductive health care” such as abortions.

The ACLU wrote: “In America, religious freedom is a fundamental right. But it does not grant hospitals the right to force their religious beliefs on patients or discriminate by closing the door to patients.”

By refusing to do abortions, however, Catholic hospitals are not discriminating against patients or denying them care. Quite the opposite, these hospitals recognize that there are two patients involved in a pregnancy and provide them both with health care. For this, the ACLU and abortion activists are attacking Catholic hospitals.

Religious leaders in the U.S. say they are increasingly concerned about violations of religious liberty for individuals and groups.

The president of the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference recently called on the government to expand conscience protections for people and groups that oppose abortion.

“The principle at stake is whether people of faith and others who oppose abortion and abortion coverage should be compelled to participate in them,” said Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, who also heads the Archdiocese of Louisville, Ky. “We will continue to reach out to the White House and Congressional leaders untiringly until proper protections are guaranteed. No one should be forced by the government to actively participate in what they believe to be the taking of an innocent life.”

Source: ACLU Trying to Shut Down Catholic Hospitals Because They Refuse to Do Abortions | LifeNews.com