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Growing Market Power Among Catholic Hospitals Restrains Access to Reproductive Health Care
The article describes how the growing consolidation of Catholic health systems in the U.S. is affecting access to reproductive health services. It reports that Catholic hospitals now comprise a significant share of hospital beds and systems, and because they follow the Ethical and Religious Directives (which limit or forbid services like abortion, many contraceptive methods, fertility treatments, and certain miscarriage management options), their market power means fewer alternative providers are available in many communities. The piece argues that this creates access barriers for patients, especially in states where Catholic hospitals are the primary or only option.
By: Bailey Sanders, Barak Richman, Kierra B. Jones, Andrea Ducas, Samuel Doernberg
Ascension Health investments appear to reject Vatican guidance
A report by National Nurses United (NNU) claims that Ascension Health’s investments—in its Master Pension Trust—include hundreds of millions of dollars in industries that conflict with the Vatican’s 2022 guidance Mensuram Bonam: Faith-Based Measures for Catholic Investors. These holdings cover weapons manufacturers, alcohol, gambling, tobacco, mining, fossil fuels, environmental-harmful banks, and exploitative labor sectors. NNU urges Ascension to increase transparency, publish its investment criteria, divest from problematic sectors, and release lists of holdings and divestments.
By: National Nurses Organizing Committee
Catholic nursing students live faith on hospital ship in Madagascar
Three nursing students from Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina spent two weeks aboard a Mercy Ships hospital ship in Madagascar as part of an internship. Mercy Ships delivers free surgical care in areas with very limited medical access. The students describe being transformed by the experience through serving patients in a “medical desert,” working alongside volunteers, and living out their faith through acts of compassion, service, and community.
By: Kate Quiñones
Ascension Saint Agnes nurses to protest Catholic hospital chain’s unfaithful financial investments
Bishop Pius Moon Chang-woo and representatives of several Catholic organizations in South Korea formally opposed proposed revisions to the Maternal and Child Health Act. The amendments would allow broader access to abortion pills, revise language to neutralize abortion, and include abortion services under national health insurance. The Catholic leaders argued the changes would devalue fetal life and marginalize the balance between a woman’s rights and the fetus’s right to life; they pledged to revitalize a national pro-life movement to uphold ethical standards and support pregnant women through Catholic health networks
By: National Nurses Organizing Committee
Study: Hospitals acquired by Catholic health systems unlikely to eliminate obstetrics
A national study compared over 700 first-time hospital acquisitions between 2009 and 2022 to see how operations change when hospitals are acquired by Catholic vs. non-Catholic systems. The study found that Catholic-system acquisitions are less likely than non-Catholic ones to eliminate obstetrics (labor and delivery) units. Catholic-owned systems also tend to preserve or expand mission-oriented services such as charity care and chaplaincy.
By: Amanda Brewster, Hector Rodriquez, Becky Staiger
Korean Catholic Bodies oppose move to ease abortions
Bishop Pius Moon Chang-woo and representatives of several Catholic organizations in South Korea formally opposed proposed revisions to the Maternal and Child Health Act. The amendments would allow broader access to abortion pills, revise language to neutralize abortion, and include abortion services under national health insurance. The Catholic leaders argued the changes would devalue fetal life and marginalize the balance between a woman’s rights and the fetus’s right to life; they pledged to revitalize a national pro-life movement to uphold ethical standards and support pregnant women through Catholic health networks
By: UCA Report