The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has tightened restrictions on reproductive health care for the one in six hospital beds nationwide that operate under its directives.
The directives ban abortion, sterilization, and most forms of contraception in Catholic facilities. Hospitals seeking to keep their doors open have found workarounds: allowing contraceptive prescriptions under the guise of a medical diagnosis, permitting tubal ligations after a Cesarean section if patients meet medical criteria, or even sectioning off an operating room where the directives don’t apply.
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