Freakazoids Bar Medical Care at University of Louisville Hospital

Those xians are so harmless and well-intentioned; all they do is force a publicly-funded university hospital to refuse medical care to women who need it.

From the Courier:

Tubal ligations to keep women from conceiving children will no longer be performed at University Hospital after its merger with two other companies, officials with the merging hospitals say, because they have agreed to honor the Catholic Church's rule against sterilizations.

That means women who deliver through C-sections at the downtown hospital will no longer be able to have their fallopian tubes tied at the same time, as is often done.

Instead, women who deliver babies at University and want a tubal ligation may have to have it done in a separate surgery elsewhere — subjecting them to a second anesthesia and extra costs.

“That's really inappropriate,” said Dr. Marcello Pietrantoni, a Louisville obstetrician who specializes in high-risk pregnancies. “You're going through a second procedure, and the risks of complications ... are doubled.”

James Taylor, CEO of University, confirmed that having a tubal ligation as part of a C-section delivery “would not be an option within University Hospital” after the merger takes effect, within about a year.

Shortly after the merger was announced, University of Louisville President James Ramsey said reproductive procedures that can't be done at University Hospital will be performed at U of L's outpatient center on Chestnut Street, which isn't part of the merger. But it doesn't deliver babies, so tubal ligations done there would be separate from C-sections.

In a recent interview, Taylor said it's too early to conclude that women delivering at University — the safety-net hospital for the area's poor — will have to have a second surgery if they want their tubes tied. But he could not explain how that could be avoided once University stops performing tubal ligations.

The merger — announced last month and involving roughly one-third of Louisville's adult hospital beds — will marry University Hospital with Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's HealthCare and Lexington-based St. Joseph Health System, part of Catholic Health Initiatives.

Liberals honor the right of women to control their own bodies and make their own decisions about sex and reproduction. Liberals adamantly oppose any organization imposing its religious beliefs on others. Liberals defend the separation of church and state.