A Catholic nursing facility in Hawthorne, New York serving patients with incurable cancer filed a federal lawsuit against New York State. The state requires care facilities to assign rooms according to a patient’s gender identity and allow them to use restrooms that align with their gender identity. The lawsuit claims that doing so is against Catholic teaching and is seeking an exemption from that policy for the facility. Critics say the lawsuit is “filled with transphobic, homophobic, and outright hostile language, trashing the law and the state for what the nursing home alleges is a violation of their Catholic faith and the Constitution — all while refusing to even respect transgender individuals and misgendering them.”
In the U.S., 1 in 6 hospitals is Catholic-owned or affiliated. Often people are not aware that a hospital’s policy is influenced by religious directives and find out too late. Catholic healthcare facilities have a history of conflicting with individuals’ rights to healthcare, especially when it comes to contraception and abortion care. A woman in California was experiencing signs of a miscarriage and went to the nearest hospital. The fetus could not be saved, and her condition required an emergency procedure to terminate the pregnancy to protect her life. Because the hospital was a Catholic facility the procedure could not be performed because the fetus still had a heartbeat. She was discharged and told to miscarry at home even though she was at serious risk of infection. At home, her condition worsened and was rushed to a secular hospital where she was properly treated.
Religious freedom should be protected but what happens when those beliefs interfere with another’s healthcare? The right to freedom and equality can be a complicated business when healthcare and religion meet.
