A California woman was denied emergency maternal care at a Catholic-affiliated hospital after her water broke at 17 weeks of pregnancy. Hospital staff said religious directives prevented them from intervening while fetal cardiac activity remained, and she was discharged to miscarry at home. She later received care at a non-Catholic hospital. The article notes that the hospital is part of a Catholic system governed by religious ethical rules and situates the case within wider scrutiny of how such policies operate in a state where reproductive health services are otherwise legally protected, particularly considering many of California's largest hospitals are catholic.

By: Kate Quiñones