The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against San Francisco-based Dignity Health, alleging the Catholic health system is unlawfully denying women's rights to contraception, according to The Sacramento Bee.
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of Physicians for Reproductive Health and a woman whose request for a tubal ligation was denied by Mercy Medical Center in Redding, Calif., a Dignity hospital.
Van Kirk, MD, a member of Physicians for Reproductive Health, claims 50 of his patients have been denied permission for postpartum tubal ligations at Mercy Medical Center in the past eight years due to the hospital's allegiance to Catholic doctrine, according to the report.
Although Dignity declined to discuss pending litigation, the health system told the Bee its general practice is not to provide sterilization services at its Catholic facilities.
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