I am your constituent and I want you to know about another religious hospital that refused to help a woman in a rural area hemorrhaging severely with unviable fetuses. Religious hospitals are supposed to help people and for many they do.They gave her towels and a bucket and sent her away. There are two problems here - the first is that you have not yet passed the Women’s Health Protection Act to legalize abortion nationwide and the second is that hospitals can claim religious exemption even when a woman is in dire circumstances.
Pass the Women’s Health Protection Act and then find a way to make clear that their tax exempt status and the flow of any federal funds to their facility is at risk.
How about sending a letter to HHS head Xavier Becerra and CMS head Chiquita Brooks-LaSure to let them know they should offer to withhold federal funds when hospitals threaten the lives of vulnerable patients in this way. You could also modify the IRS code 501 c 3 section for tax exemption for hospitals to be specific about prohibiting such life threatening behavior on “ethical grounds. Here is a link to the story so you and your staff can read it yourselves, https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/california-attorney-general-lawsuit-emergency-abortion-catholic-hospitals/.
