Saskatchewan women have launched an email campaign to restore women's health services in Humboldt. The Board of Directors of St. Elizabeth's Hospital recently decided that it will not perform tubal ligations, following directions from the Bishop in Saskatoon and the Sask. Catholic Health Association. Jerome Strasser, chair of the board, publicly stated that "sterilization" is not an ethical option.  "Our hospital, which is a valued and cherished part of our community, has a long history of offering faith-based health care services," the hospital's website says.

Ironically, or perhaps not so ironically, Humboldt's men will still have access to vasectomies.

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Comments

Not so terrible Written by Guest on 2006-09-14 21:25:34 The official stance of the Catholic church is against contraception. Services not offered because of the Catholic faith aren't terribly high.  In fact, this hospital is already refusing itself public funds--it makes less money for every procedure it refuses to do. Therefore, its denial of public funds is proportionate to its loss of public services.  Refusing a Catholic run hospital all public money is a foolish idea for the citizens of Saskatchewan and a slap in the face of caring Catholics who brought us health services long before the days of medicare.

guest - please explain Written by rachel on 2006-09-15 12:57:32 To the person who wrote the comment above - it's all fine and dandy if they are not receiving funds for doing the tubal ligations, but this is really an issue of access. Women should be able to receive tubal ligations if they want them, and not have to travel to Saskatoon. I find it particularly strange that men can still have vasectomies. Why does the catholic chruch not have a problem with them?

Just the facts Written by dorothy on 2007-03-03 22:28:59 The fact is, under certain tubal-ligation procedure can be allowed in a Catholic setting, for the total health and well being of the patient where delay or transfer to another health care facility that would constitute a threat to the life or health of the patient.    During an audit of policies and procedures at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Humboldt, it was discovered that doctors were not complying with the hospital's existing tubal-ligation policy. That policy called that a simple application be made for tubal-ligations in light of the church's beliefs on sterilization. (This simple process replaced an earlier policy in which an ethics committee reviewed requests for the procedure.) Each doctor is aware of this provision and others as stated in contracts when hired to practice medicine in Catholic hospitals.    Should there have been a problem with one of these tubal-ligation operations that was not authorized, the Board could have been held liable. In light of the non-compliance, and after discussion and legal counsel, the board decided to ban the procedure entirely, thus eliminating the problem of doctors not following proper procedure.    Like it or not, we cannot all have things our way, because there are just too many “ways.” We just have to try to do the best we can. On the one hand, people are upset that they can’t get services they think they have every right to when they go to a Catholic hospital. I, on the other hand, don’t appreciate my tax dollars being used to fund abortions in a public hospital. There is not a damn thing I can do about it.     Catholic religious orders were among the first organizations to establish and run hospitals in Saskatchewan in the early years of the 20th century. When, in the 1960s, universal health care began to be provided by government, Catholic and other faith-based health care providers were assured that their commitment to providing health care would be respected and that they could continue to provide these services in accordance with their religious values and consciences. As a matter of fact, Tommy Douglas himself opened an addition to St. Elizabeth’s hospital in the 60’s.     I, for one, take some comfort in knowing that faith-based hospitals exist, and I have a choice as to where I would want to seek medical attention. Doctors in turn,have the choice of where they want to practice. We all have our choices to make, and aren’t we lucky that we do?

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