Just when you think the Catholic theocrats can’t get any more disgusting, they surprise you. Catholic News Agency reports the theocratic point of view on Catholic hospitals and health care institutions refusing to provide contraception.
Following controversy over a Catholic-affiliated medical center’s rejection of contraceptive practices in Oklahoma, physicians have said that such institutions are trying to act with integrity.
“Catholic hospitals and health care providers do not prevent women from accessing what they want, they just don’t provide it themselves,” Lester Ruppersberger, a Pennsylvania physician and vice president of the Catholic Medical Association, said April 3.
“They are not lobbying against contraception, they just do not wish to be forced to violate their beliefs and ethics.”
Bollocks. When they’re the only game in town, they do indeed prevent women from getting access to what they want. You can’t just go to WalMart and buy an IUD and shove it in, you know.
He told CNA that those who do not agree with Catholic medical ethics “are not being deprived” and “do not have the right to expect or force (Catholic health systems) to provide what they cannot and will not.”
Yes they do. If you don’t want to do the job, don’t take the job. The job is the job.
Rebecca Peck, a Florida-based family physician, criticized assumptions that birth control drugs are difficult to secure.
“They are widely available, even if there is not another health care system in town.” The federal Title X Family Planning Program makes contraceptives “widely available, even free,” and the drugs can be purchased at the retail giant Wal-Mart “for about $10 a month,” she said.
Peck, a member of the Catholic Medical Association, said that contraceptives and morning-after pills do not prevent disease.
“Fertility and children are not diseases,” she told CNA April 3.
She said that contraceptive use is bad for women’s health and their relationships, noting some studies indicating an increase in breast cancer and cervical cancer risk, the risk of strokes and blood clots, and occasionally death.
Ruppersberger said that Catholics understand that contraception “violates the meaning of the marital act” by separating procreation from the unitive dimensions of marital relations.
Peck labeled as “short-sighted,” concerns that the Catholic-affiliated medical center policy will hurt the local economy by driving business elsewhere.
She said money from obstetric and pediatric services for children helps contribute to the town’s economy, as does the labor of the children after they grow up.
Therefore, it’s perfectly fine for the Catholic church to force women to have those children when they don’t want to. The Catholic church gets to decide and not the people who will have and raise the children – according to Rebecca Peck.
She said Catholic health systems “promote family life, which is the heart and soul of every town,” and that Catholic health care provides a necessary counterweight to “an increasingly secular and utilitarian society.”
Ruppersberger said Catholic hospitals exist to provide “Christ-centered health care,” which aims to apply Catholic teachings “with integrity and compassion.”
“Christ” is for church. Keep your “Christ” out of our hospitals.
Oh barf.
These morons have GOT to GO!!
So how do women get contraceptives from Wal-Mart for $10 a month if they can’t get a doctor to prescribe the contraceptives? Hmmm…?
so if they are trying “to act with integrity” by not getting involved with contraceptives then why the hell are they in the health care business. Actually, they have just admitted that there really not in it for healthcare. They are in it to tell other people what to do, especially when it comes to sex.
She just blanket bloody says that, does she? Not having to worry about pregnancy (I got a vasectomy after Kid #2) was *excellent* for our relationship, thank you. And pregnancy, while not exactly a disease (except when it turns into one — and there are several to choose from) ain’t exactly a risk-free stroll in the park at the best of times. All backed up by cherry-picking “some studies”. Liar.
Christ-centered health care is why I avoid the Catholic hospitals and their affiliates in Seattle. I much prefer medicine-centered health care, thank you very much.
Christ-centered? When I read the Gospels I notice that he practiced exorcism, magical spit therapy, and faith healing.
“If you don’t want to do the job, don’t take the job.’ Agreed.
As well as the question of medical ethics, there’s another one– “How are US Catholic hospitals financed–partly by the taxpayers or are they totally independent?
Indeed, fertility and children are not diseases. As every right thinking person knows, they are punishments. Using contraception is an attempt to enjoy the crime but not do the time!
“… they just do not wish to be forced to violate their beliefs and ethics.”
Well, I sincerely hope that these aren’t the same ‘ethics’ that the atrocious Anjezë Bojaxhiu disseminated for years on a poor, unsuspecting and undeserving populace.
Speaking of Seattle, The Stranger did a feature article on Catholic Hospitals in Washington last year, titled Faith Healers: Catholics Are Taking Over Local Hospitals, Imposing Their Faith on Your Health Care, and Planning to Deny Certain Treatments for Patients Who Are Pregnant or Dying. It is definitely worth a read.
That dying part is important: Washington has a Death with Dignity law, and Catholic hospitals are doing everything they can to subvert it. Catholic hospitals are not informing patients of their rights under state law, and are doing everything they can to keep patients who wish to use the law from getting transferred to secular hospitals. I had gone into a now Catholic hospital(*) last year for elective surgery, and I was given the very strong impression that if I had an advanced directive (“pull the plug if I’m effectively dead”) I would not have been admitted at all. Being gay, atheist and HIV+ — that is to say, being on three of the Church’s better off dead lists — I have no intention of ever going back.
* Swedish Medical Center used to be a secular, medicine based hospital with a very high reputation. It was bought out by the Providence Group a few years ago in what was claimed would be a “cooperative merger” that would not affect hospital policy or management. Since Providence was the larger partner, though, they got a majority of seats on the new Board of Directors. All of those seats were appointed in consultation with the Archbishop of Seattle, an extremist bigot appointed by Pope Maladict and charged with heading the Inquisition against nuns who broke Church law by fighting social injustice rather than gay marriage. Unfortunately, the private clinic that all my doctors belong to is affiliated with Swedish, so my options are either to remain with the hospital or change my entire care team. Neither course is particularly attractive.
@9, Gregory: I live in Everett. Providence is pretty much the only game in town here. It’s a bit frightening, although the new hospital (which shows how much money they’ve got!) is very nice.
‘…unitive dimensions of marital relations…’
You mean, fucking?
Many years ago on IRC a Catholic tried to give a group of atheists a secular argument against using birth control — even in marriage.
First of all, he admitted that when a married couple decides that it is not a good time to have children that is often a wise decision. Fine. Then he brought in an analogy. Imagine that a judge rules honesty and wisely in a court case. Got it? Okay. Now … what if someone PAID the judge for making this ruling? Gave them a gift for doing the right thing. Wouldn’t that take away from the righteousness of the act? The judge should strive for justice, regardless.
Well, when a married couple chooses to do the right thing and not have a child when they can’t handle it — but then have sex anyway — that is JUST like a judge taking a bribe for following the law.
WTF?
Yes, I know. But somehow he thought this would finally get atheists to see the problem with birth control. Apparently, you need to suffer for a good choice to be a good choice … or something like that. This guy was apparently so steeped in the Catholic mindset that he’d lost touch with what counts for a rational argument in the real world. He was so optimistic when he started, too. Thought he’d come up with something.
But they aren’t necessarily wanted, either. So what do these assholes propose?
Golly, Sastra. That is truly amazing.
Norman Mailer’s “reason” for saying sex should never be delinked from procreation was that it makes sex risky and that’s better sex.
Sigh.
Denying women access to contraception is not an example of treating them with integrity and compassion. It’s the opposite. Fucking fuckers.
Fucking hell.
If I’m in hospital, that’s one time I damn well expect things to be centered around me and my needs. If Christ Himself isn’t down here doing all the work, leave him out of it and get to doing yer job.
“Ruppersberger said that Catholics understand that contraception “violates the meaning of the marital act” by separating procreation from the unitive dimensions of marital relations.”
She forgot to mention that an overwhelming number of Catholics simply ignore the Catholic Church’s ruling here and use contraception anyway.
82% of US Catholics, anyway …
http://www.gallup.com/poll/154799/americans-including-catholics-say-birth-control-morally.aspx