Slog

News & Arts

Line Out

Music & the City
at Night

« If You Watched House of Cards, You… | This Weekend: The Return of Jennife… »

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Health / Religion / The Ladies Don't Plan on Having a Complicated Pregnancy (or Death) in Western Washington

Posted by Cienna Madrid on Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 11:09 AM

As I wrote in this feature, Catholic hospitals are taking over local hospitals, imposing their religious morals on patients' healthcare, and denying access certain legal treatments (abortions, information about physician-assisted suicide, even access to birth control) to their patients.

The ACLU of Washington has created two maps that depict the reaches of religious healthcare in Washington state. The first map shows what counties are currently dominated by religious hospitals. (As you can see, it includes the most populous counties.)

The second map shows what will happen should 10 proposed Catholic hospital mergers be completed in western Washington.

ACLU of Washington
Click to enlarge.

Basically, the difference between the two maps is that all hospitals in Skagit, Snohomish, and Kitsap county would become religiously affiliated, as well as over 50 percent of hospitals in Grays Harbor. This means that in these counties, accessing comprehensive healthcare could become much harder as residents find themselves at the brutal mercy of the Catholic church.

For more information on what the ACLU of Washington is doing to raise awareness about the potential impacts of these mergers, go here.

FacebookShare

Comments (13) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

It's not just lady-and-death-biz, either! I went to college in Whatcom County, where St. Joseph's was the only option. I had a friend that, long story short (for privacy reasons), ended up in inpatient rehab when he probably didn't belong there. It was a heavily religious program, he was an atheist, and he had to choose between pretending to accept God and staying in (public) college. Pretty sure the ACLU has that on file somewhere. Shit is DANGEROUS.

Also, speaking of death: in my PUBLIC COLLEGE HEALTH CLASS, my teacher, citing St Joseph's, said that I-1000 would be overturned because of all the Catholic hospitals. Like it was a good thing. Ugh.

Posted by icouldliveinhope on March 7, 2013 at 11:19 AM

Perhaps the silver lining is that Catholic schools and hospitals is on the decline, as the number of parishioners fall - which show no sign of abating.

Posted by raindrop on March 7, 2013 at 11:26 AM

Um...Snohomish County has two non-religiously affiliated hospitals I can think of off the top of my head - Valley General (part of Evergreen Health) and Cascade Hospital (a public hospital).

Posted by michaelp on March 7, 2013 at 11:36 AM

Fuck religion

Posted by Urgutha Forka on March 7, 2013 at 11:51 AM

If they are a religious hospital, they need to wear scarlet robed hoods and sew the emblems of their faith on those robes. Giant ones.

Otherwise, how are we supposed to know we entered a No Science zone?

Posted by Will in Seattle

on March 7, 2013 at 12:05 PM

@3 You say "has." Present tense. The post says 100% religiously affiliated in Snohomish "...will happen [if]..." Future tense. These are not mutually exclusive.

The Google says Valley was in negotiation with Providence in 2011. Can't immediately find out if that's ongoing. Didn't turn up anything about Cascade. But, be afraid.

Is there anyone in government we can protest to stop these mergers?

Posted by ScrawnyKayaker on March 7, 2013 at 1:10 PM

Is Swedish Religious Affiliated? If so they now operate Stevens Hospital in Edmonds, north or 205th. In their, and UW's efforts to take over healthcare in Western WA, I doubt they'd give that up.

Posted by F'n F'gs on March 7, 2013 at 1:55 PM

Why don't you go nail a woodblock of your "95 Theses" on one of these hospitals.

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on March 7, 2013 at 1:59 PM

@6 - I caught that after the fact, and hoped nobody would notice it. It would have been helpful to ensure I didn't type something so goddamn stupid had Cienna included both maps,. not just the post-merger maps.

There. It's all Cienna's fault. Not me and my lack of reading an entire post before commenting. :-)

Posted by michaelp on March 7, 2013 at 4:47 PM

That map is weird. All the counties are in the wrong places.

Posted by judgemental on March 7, 2013 at 7:36 PM

Holy Shit.

Posted by Karlheinz Arschbomber

on March 7, 2013 at 8:06 PM

"brutal mercy of the Catholic Church"

Talk about hyperbole. You'd think those poor people were undergoing the Spanish Inquisition to get their free Obamacare.

Posted by GeneStoner on March 7, 2013 at 9:44 PM

@7, Swedish is now affiliated with the Sisters of Providence.

The Catholic hospitals are making it unnecessary for Roe v Wade to be overturned. And no, there's no one in government to turn to; these hospitals don't get government money.

Posted by sarah70 on March 7, 2013 at 11:11 PM