The Catholic Church is known for opposing birth control, vasectomies, tubal ligations, and anything else that might get in the way of a possible pregnancy. Now it’s going even further. The Vatican says it will only approve hysterectomies for women who can prove that pregnancy is a life-threatening condition — or if a doctor decides that her uterus is “no longer suitable for procreation.”
Anyone else who needs a uterus removed in a Catholic hospital will have to figure out a Plan B.
If “medical experts have reached the certainty” that any future pregnancy would end in a “spontaneous abortion” before viability, then the patient can have a hysterectomy, because it won’t have the (immoral) effect of sterilizing them, the Vatican said late last week.
… In the United States, directives issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops govern one in six acute-care hospital beds; in some states the number is closer to half. In at least 46 regions nationwide, a Catholic hospital is the only accessible option.
“Life-threatening” can have multiple definitions. In my case, my anti-depressants are incompatible with a growing fetus — having to go nine months without them could be life-threatening. Children are also expensive: parents who go into poverty because they can barely take care of themselves, let alone a growing child, could also stake a claim to a possible life-threatening condition.
Women on Twitter responded to this decision with stories of their own:
I've had 9 (NINE) failed pregnancies, between ectopic and miscarriages, cysts on my ovaries, endometriosis, a fibroid, and they still won't do a god damned thing because, "I am of child bearing age". So ridiculous.
— Unlikable_SKI13 (@FeministAnnie) January 7, 2019
The hospital where both my sons were born is Catholic. I elected to have my tubes removed and had to wait 6 weeks to be cleared, another 30 days after I signed the paperwork and still had to go to a different hospital for the procedure. So much time and energy wasted.
— Snide Sally (@snide_sally) January 7, 2019
As a woman with a laundry list of health problems, my “Baptist” hospital refuses to help me manage my health. They refused to do a hysterectomy citing there’s always a chance I’d get better. Kidney disease & all its problems do NOT get better w/ a transplant. ���
— Jackie Graves (@Gravelark) January 7, 2019
The hospital where I had my endometrial ablation (a procedure that makes pregnancy dangerous but not impossible) would not tie my tubes at the same time, as a non-catholic hospital would have.
1/2— Patty G-M (@ElephiPelephi) January 7, 2019
Before I had the chance to have the sterilization at another hospital, I accidentally became pregnant. Because pregnancy in this condition is life threatening, I had to have an abortion. Oh, the irony.
2/2— Patty G-M (@ElephiPelephi) January 7, 2019
You would think that the Catholic Church would consider it a lesser evil to prevent pregnancies than abort them. The bottom line is, men who can’t get pregnant and will never have the responsibility of raising a family have no business telling women what to do. Yet their decisions will impact countless women who will only find that out after it’s too late.
(Image via Shutterstock)
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