The following comes from a March 24 story in the Columbian.
A statue of Mother Joseph sits on display as a prayer circle takes place March 13 at the Heritage Chapel at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center. PeaceHealth is a Catholic-sponsored nonprofit, but it’s also a health care corporation with its own board and bylaws.
Southwest Washington Medical Center joined PeaceHealth’s network after the two organizations finalized a merger in December 2010. The hospital was renamed PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center.
Sarah Dunne, the ACLU’s legal director in Seattle, said currently 60 percent of hospital beds in Washington are operated by secular health providers while 40 percent are run by religiously affiliated organizations.
According to an analysis by the ACLU, if eight proposed and pending mergers are approved by the end of 2013 those percentages will significantly shift. Forty-seven percent of hospital beds in the state would be run by religiously affiliated hospitals, according to the group’s analysis, while the share of secular beds would decrease to 53 percent.
By the end of this year, Dunne said, mergers in Whatcom, Skagit and Snohomish counties could result in 100 percent of the hospitals in those communities being run by religiously affiliated institutions.
Hospitals are supposed to be places of healing, but Washington’s hospitals are becoming places of conflict between religion and government over health care services.
The state’s American Civil Liberties Union is questioning whether health care regulatory agencies and public hospital districts should grant approval to faith-based hospitals — primarily Catholic — that don’t offer reproductive and end-of-life services that are widely available at secular hospitals. In some rural areas of the state, the ACLU says, hospital consolidations and mergers could leave communities only with Catholic hospitals which refuse, based on Catholic religious beliefs, to provide such services.
“We’re very troubled by what’s going on,” said Sarah Dunne, legal director for the Seattle-based American Civil Liberties Union of Washington Foundation. The ACLU is pressing its case on several fronts, including the possibility of legal action. The group also is challenging proposed partnerships between Vancouver-based PeaceHealth and other health care providers.
PeaceHealth, a Catholic-sponsored health system, is pushing back. The nonprofit health care giant — Clark County’s top private employer — says its partnerships with public hospital districts and others are well within legal parameters. And the organization stands by its right to deny certain services based on its religious principles, officials say, as it continues a long history of improving health care in a variety of communities.
“All we have to point to is our record of service,” said Jenny Ulum, a PeaceHealth spokeswoman….
To read entire story, click here.
We need to make laws that protect our religious freedoms….we need to be protected. Lets keep this in our prayers and also pray that North Korea doesn’t send nuclear weapons our way. The threat is real and we need to pray for our Lord’s protection.
We have laws that protect our freedoms. It’s called the Constitution of these United States. We just need to demand that they be recognized by our government leaders.
Camille no not really….you see in certain states, especially in California, Homosexuals are now a protected race (so that is how it is presented) but Christianity isn’t. For example…in sensitivity training courses in jobs, they teach that if a Christian is offended by a homosexual bragging about his sexuality, that it doesn’t matter what the Christian thinks about it, that they need to be taught how to accept and respect that but if a homosexual is offended on the expressed beliefs of a Christian regarding sodomy, that it will have to be written up and they give reasons as to why. Camille I suggest you learn more about these realities faced today…..where as long ago, it was common sense to respect religious freedom, now it is not now….not everyone considers that common sense, so it must now be a direct law stating that Christians have the right to their personal believe in regards to sodomy and it should be considered a hate crime if anyone opposes that freedom but it’s not.
I meant to say that the homosexuals are a protected class….we need to make Christians a protected class.. so these gay activists won’t get away with trying to intimate those with a moral conscience.
Today I read from the Susan B Anthony email newsletter: A lobbyist for Planned Parenthood told Florida lawmakers that it is OK to kill a baby born alive after a botched abortion. Read that again: SHE SAID IT IS OK TO KILL A LIVE BABY. They have a video as evidence that it was indeed said. I think Bill O Riley is also covering that horrifying news. These people are truly EVIL!
I pray that they don’t send God’s wrath upon us for their evil deeds. Of course with how this world is going I can’t expect anything less…with gay agenda’s at the top of the list for the wicked politicians and their abortion agenda’s as well…who can expect anything less! God have mercy on us and all the innocent good people, may He not allow North Korea To nook us! YES Folks, we Americans have always been in denial that anything can happen to us, the news may not tell you the whole story to avoid hysteria. The government will keep it hush hush but it’s real folks North Korea means business! DON”T THINK we are untouchable…..
Another important news for health care religious freedom comes from Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel, please lets give them our full support, those that honor God and His natural law:
“The California “change therapy” law (SB-1172) banning any counseling to help minors overcome same-sex attraction will put families, teens, and counselors on the wrong side of the law. The law mandates that the state knows what’s best for children regarding sensitive counseling concerning same-sex attractions! Liberty Counsel’s lawsuit challenges this outrageous law and will be heard in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on April 17th.
++Under SB-1172, counselors will face a terrible dilemma.
Under all counseling licensing codes, clients have the right to “self-determination.” A Christian has the right to seek Christian counseling and has the right to prioritize Christian and moral values on sexuality over unwanted same-sex attractions. But under California’s SB 1172, counselors will be forced to disregard their clients’ religious beliefs…or change them. If counselors obey the law, they will violate existing ethical codes because they will be forced to overrule their clients’ right to self-determination. If counselors provide counsel or referral to clients seeking to eliminate or manage same-sex sexual attractions, they will violate the new law. Christian counselors will lose their licenses no matter what they do!
SB 1172 and the ethical codes of California’s licensing boards are on an inevitable collision course. The licenses of countless mental health professionals literally hang in the balance! Even worse, the lives of many young people and their families will be adversely impacted under this law. Minor clients will suffer irreparable harm, because they will no longer be able to receive the kind of counseling they have chosen, even though they are greatly benefiting from it.
This outrageous law must be STOPPED! “
Since America is in the business of killing babies, persecuting the Catholic Church, shoving sodomy down our throats, and electing wicked rulers, I won’t be shedding any tears if North Korea nukes America.
Ski Ven I understand but there are many innocent lay faithful and families who also live in America…. aborting (Nuclear Weapons) them along with evil is not justice. Most likely it will hit Military home bases. There are also good Catholic faithful there too…
“Lord, stay the Chastisement, but if it must fall, protect your children,” from the Pro Life Rosary. God always takes care of his own, even through the darkest of valleys.
Obamacare = Euthanasia. The Culture of Death is never satisfied, there can be no compromise with evil.
Folks, rest assured North Korea doesn’t presently have the nuclear capability of attacking the United States, but they are moving toward it. Once that crazy young kid pushes things a step too far, and he’s on the brink, we will be longing for the good old days when all we had to worry about on the nightly news was Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia or China. North Korea has so little to lose, and that idiot kid has so much prestige to gain by proving himself to his people, who have no respect for him secretly, and we are so big and envied a target, there is a real possibility that the public will decide it isn’t so much Obama who is the anti-Christ as Kim Jong Un or whatever his name is. Even the ACLU fighting religiously-operated hospitals while promoting the killing of babies and old folks taking up hospital beds will seem like an annoying horse fly at a picnic compared to what this idiot kid will be capable of doing once they do become a full-on nuclear threat.
Don’t forget to go to confession regularly between now and then. We all might be meeting each other at the pearly gates a little bit sooner than we had imagined. There are quite a few of you I’m looking forward to meeting anyway, so I need to keep my ticket punched too.
If only that Democrat President Harry Truman had let General Douglas MacArthur finish what they (the North Koreans) started!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
I am thankful that God is merciful more than some here who don’t mind if North Korea attemps to fire Nuclear weapons on Evil USA…..I am reminded of Abraham how he asked God to spare good people.
“And the Lord said to him: If I And in Sodom fifty just within the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake” Genesis 18:26
Good Faith based hospitals do NOT murder babies or adults.
All persons have the right to go to the hospital of their choice, or be transferred to the hospital of their choice.
The ACLU wants to dictate to everyone and control everyone.
There needs to be no conflict between religion and government. – PROVIDED that the government does not support the murder of babies and others;
PROVIDED that the government does not support relativism and sexual sins.
Where are all the Bishop’s Conferences regarding evil legislation? Sleeping?
The Conferences need to expose the names of all politicians who SUPPORT EVIL, so that they will not be re-elected.
Mike,
Most of our “bishops” are too busy having tea and banqueting with those evil politicians to speak out against them. You are not supposed to bite the hand that feeds you!
The late great Cardinal McIntyre knew what he was doing when he avoided government moneys!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
This can be critically important info – to help save your Soul.
Regarding accurate end of life and pain management Church teaching see: CCC # 2276, 2277, 2278, 2279 and 2324. Be sure to incorporate these into all your end of life legal documents.
Read about Christian Funerals: “CCC 1680 – 1690.
Be aware of and ask for the “APOSTOLIC BLESSING” by any Catholic Priest for those who are in danger of death which carries a Plenary Indulgence. (The “Manual of Indulgences” written and approved by the Vatican’s Apostolic Penitentiary is available through the USCCB web site, and some other Catholic catalogue sites.)
So then, anonymous, one logical response to your post could be that you and others like you could support a pre-emptive military strike @ North Korea to deprive them of the ability to strike @ the U.S. first. And of course the commander-in-chief for that strike against North Korea would be the abortionist-in-chief, Barack Hussein Obama himself. You’d TRUST this thoroughly amoral individual to set in motion a chain of events that could possibly lead to WWIII? For me, I’d trust the counsel of the newly elected Pope Francis; he advises all the major powers of the world to NEGOTIATE, MEET WITH, maybe even CONCILIATE with this callow nutjob sitting in the highest office in North Korea. Wouldn’t that be more humane for all than possible nuclear war unleashed on the already suffering NK population through retaliation or pre-emptive strike? Seems like a no-brainer to me. Just asking.GOD BLESS ALL, MARKRITE
If you ‘click’ to read the rest of the story you will find Sister Andrea Nenzel, chair of PeaceHealth’s board explaining what she calls following Catholic doctrine regarding patient care in her hospitals. Read the following 2 points:
*It does not permit abortion except to save the life of the mother.
*Contraceptive decisions, including tubal ligations and vasectomies, are between the patient and the provider, and are based on medical necessity.
IN other words we do abortions and we allow tubals and vasectomies.
If that is Catholic doctrine I’ll eat my hat!
My most deeply held belief regarding Catholic hospitals (and there are some that are truly Catholic) is that if you don’t like the ones that were initially built and staffed by Catholic sisters and over the years have served their communities NOT for profit, and have NOT turned away anyone who can’t pay… then I suggest you get your friends together… all the atheists, contracepters, homosexuals, abortionists and euthanasia proponents (all of whom have been treated with great dignity while ill and in need in Catholic hospitals) and save up your money and build your own hospital. Catholics built hospitals in this country when no one else cared to be bothered… now they all want to tell us how to run our hospitals! Isn’t that a bit like the story of the Little Red Hen?
Build your own… buy your own… make your own rules. Otherwise shut up!
[But I’ll tell you this much: you won’t find me staying in one of their hospitals where they just might decide I’m not useful enough and push a bit of K+ in my IV.]
The ACLU wants to steal Catholic hospitals, just as the govt is doing now.
The ACLU is a subversive organization founded by a communist. Its modus operandi was and is subterfuge.