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With Catholic health systems expanding, stricter rules could have implications for reproductive and maternity care across the country.

With Catholic health systems expanding, stricter rules could have implications for reproductive and maternity care across the country.

by Nina Martin ProPublica, Nov. 11, 2014, 10:17 a.m.

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The 2011 merger of the two remaining hospitals in Troy, N.Y., had many potential benefits and one huge hurdle.

Samaritan was secular, committed to providing the widest possible spectrum of reproductive and maternity care to its Albany-area patients. St. Mary's was Catholic, limiting or banning many reproductive options and any merger partner had to abide by the same rules.

It took several years of negotiations among three different health systems, much back-and-forth with women's advocates, and the sign-off of the local bishop. But in the end, the parties struck a deal that all of them could live with. The centerpiece was the brand-new Burdett Care Center, housed on Samaritan's second floor.

To all appearances, Burdett was a typical maternity ward. But in reality, it was a separately incorporated hospital-within-a-hospital, secular and thus free from the Catholic restrictions that Samaritan had agreed to follow. Burdett could provide birth control and perform tubal ligations; if a woman was having a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy, doctors could treat her according to generally accepted standards of care.

Complicated? Yes. Cumbersome? Very. Still, as a compromise to preserve access to care in Troy, "it's worked very well," said Lois Uttley of the nonprofit group MergerWatch, which helped broker the arrangement.

Original post:

Catholic Bishops Weigh Tightening Rules for Health Care Partnerships