Ahead of hospital merger, Kentucky newspaper rips Catholic influence

Calling upon Kentucky’s governor and Louisville’s mayor to intervene, the leading newspaper in Kentucky is blasting a pending merger between University of Louisville Hospital and a Catholic hospital. The resulting entity would follow the US bishops’ health care directives.

“No religious group should hold veto power over any legal medical procedure performed at a public hospital. None. The issue shouldn't even come up,” the Louisville Courier-Journal editorial board stated.

“University Hospital would stop doing a common procedure, tubal ligations, which allow women to avoid pregnancies, because they have the effect of preventing future pregnancies,” the editorial board continued, adding:

What on earth can U of L be thinking? These are major issues related to women's health at the hospital that provides the greatest amount of care for indigents in the city. What is more, these are completely legal, medically sound procedures. How can a reputable medical school send its students into a hospital for training that sets its rules based on the rulings of Catholic bishops and the Vatican?

Catholic Health Initiatives will own 70 percent of the proposed merged companies. It will dominate the board of directors. How can the state or the city allow this to happen, and to permit millions of dollars of the public's money to be allocated and spent in shadowy backrooms, where Catholic bishops will have more influence than doctors or the people of this city?