Zonta Club of Everett supports the Keep our Care Act for exactly this reason: Women should have control over their healthcare. “Most of us do not want a stranger’s ideology controlling our futures.
If you live in a “blue” or “abortion haven” state, you may feel protected from abortion bans, but the truth is, your healthcare may be limited by the religious interests directing your local hospital. “
These hospitals can create a monopoly, like in Everett, and limit access to not only reproductive care, but end of life care and gender affirming care. #Keepourcareact #reproductiverights #ReproductiveHealthCare
Read more at Ms Magazine: https://msmagazine.com/2023/10/05/religious-hospitals-abortion/?
More background on the Keep our Care act:
From the Seattle times: “Denied care, difficult access
Washington has one of the highest rates of religiously affiliated hospitals in the U.S., with several counties lacking even one secular hospital, according to a 2021 analysis by the state Insurance Commissioner’s office.
Swedish in 2012 formed an alliance with Providence, a multistate Catholic corporation, and Virginia Mason merged with CHI Franciscan in 2021, becoming part of CommonSpirit Health, another national player in Catholic health care….”
“Carried out with varying degrees of strictness and workarounds, the directives prohibit medical aid in dying, abortion, some types of fertility treatments and contraception, including tubal ligations and vasectomies. Such facilities also do not typically offer some forms of care for transgender patients.
Mounting concern about those prohibitions has led Madsen and others to call for more oversight of health care mergers, acquisitions and affiliations, similar to policies in Oregon and California.