treatment denied

[niyad]

(the catholic church's war on, and hatred for, women, continues apace. if you live in an area that only has a catholic hospital, women, you are seriously screwed)

Treatment Denied



Kathleen Prieskorn gasped in shock as her medical nightmare began. Still reeling from the heartbreak of an earlier miscarriage, Prieskorn was three months pregnant and working as a waitress when she felt a twinge, felt a trickle down her leg and realized she was miscarrying again.

She rushed to her doctor’s office, “where I learned my amniotic sac had torn,” says Prieskorn, who lives with her husband in Manchester, N.H. “But the nearest hospital had recently merged with a Catholic hospital—and because my doctor could still detect a fetal heartbeat, he wasn’t allowed to give me a uterine evacuation that would help me complete my miscarriage.”

To get treatment, Prieskorn, who has no car, had to instead travel 80 miles to the nearest hospital that would perform the procedure—expensive to do in an ambulance, because she had no health insurance. Her doctor handed her $400 of his own cash and she bundled into the back of a cab.


. . . . .
Ordeals like the one Prieskorn suffered are not isolated incidents: They could happen to a woman of any income level, religion or state now that Catholic institutions have become the largest not-for-profit source of health-care in the U.S., treating 1 in 6 hospital patients. And that’s because Catholic hospitals are required to adhere to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services—archconservative restrictions issued by the 258-member U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.


. . .

http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/05/09/treatment-denied/

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. That is horrible.

My heart goes out to her, and to any woman in that situation.

And shame on the Catholic hospitals. And on the Catholic church for propagating this horrifying dogma.

[niyad]

4. and so many counties only have catholic hospitals. I wonder what it will take to force the

hospitals to provide the FULL range of medical services--lose their tax exemption?? fines?--oh, that "religious conscience" thing, to which I respond, "if your conscience dictates that you cannot perform the full range of your job, GET ANOTHER FUCKING JOB"

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Dupe.

[REP]

3. The holy spirit is best served by women with sepsis (a huge risk with a missed abortion)

[niyad]

5. sickening, isn't it?

[REP]

6. Absolutely. And they get a TAX BREAK to endanger women. Yay!

[niyad]

7. absolutely disgusting. would that we could get their tax exemption revoked.

[Brickbat]

8. I would have liked to have seen that doctor say "fuck it" and treat her there.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. So would I.

[Fly by night]

10. He should have, and then resigned LOUDLY, if the MD is one of the dwindling number ...

... of physicians who has actually read and understood the Hippocratic Oath.

I left the Catholic Church in 1967 and have never looked back. Besides the pedophiles and reich-wing politicians, there are precious few others in church leadership these days. That, plus a Nazi as Pope, ought to put the cork in that cask of holy (sic) water any time now.

[niyad]

11. there certainly isn't a lot to recommend in the leadership of the church --

[niyad]

12. . . .

[niyad]

13. . . .