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Editor's Note
March 4, 2024

Access to Reproductive Services and Catholic Hospitals

Author Affiliations
  • 1Department of Social Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina School of Medicine at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill
  • 2Associate Editor, JAMA Internal Medicine
  • 3NYC Health and Hospitals, New York, New York
  • 4Deputy Editor, JAMA Internal Medicine
JAMA Intern Med. 2024;184(5):501. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.8430

Hospitals with Catholic affiliations have a growing presence in the health care ecosystem. The tenets of Catholic health care services position them as important providers of services and advocates for “people whose social condition puts them at the margins of our society”1 and thus are well positioned to provide care to those most vulnerable individuals in our society. However, the same tenets prohibit contraceptive services unless they treat serious conditions with no alternative treatment and refusal to provide services that are not aligned with the religious tenets.

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2 Comments for this article
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Catholic Hospitals and abortion
Daniel Benz, MD | Private practice
To help address Dr Corbie and Katz's concerns, I wish to briefly explain the foundation of medical ethics for Catholic hospital in this area

Catholic hospitals accept the scientific evidence that a new human life begins at conception with distinct genetics, metabolism, growth and development patterns from the mother. As such, a new human being is present.
As such, the mother and new human being are both patients, neither of which can be directly or intentionally killed by abortion/euthanasia.

Also, Catholic hospitals embrace the principal of " first do no harm". As such, they do not advocate
sterilization techniques which rupture normal functioning of the female reproductive system. Catholic hospital instead, seek to help women understand and then manage their healthy, intact fertility

I hope that helps give some perspective
CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None Reported
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Access to Reproductive Services and Catholic Hospitals
pedro López de Castro Alujes, phD | thoracic surgeon
Elaborating on what Dr. Benz explains and in relation to the editorial, ask how to ensure that the patient, in a childbirth situation, fully understands what the offer of definitive contraceptive measures entails? The decision should be made in advance based on correct information and taken calmly and calmly. Do we have data on sterilized people who have regretted their decision, depending on the circumstances under which it was made? And, on the other hand, do we have data on regret or satisfaction with the decision not to be sterilized in the same circumstances? We should know how these decisions are made, what information and how it is given, etc.
The results of the study by Drs Meille & Monnet do not show major differences between both types of hospitals. What's more, the fact that contraceptive measures in the year following childbirth do not increase could mean that mothers are not dissatisfied with their decision.
Catholics believe in responsible birth. That women know how to recognize their fertile periods and act accordingly according to their wishes for motherhood and their possibilities.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None Reported
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