The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Michigan have filed a lawsuit against the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, challenging their guidelines for Catholic hospitals.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Michigan last Friday on behalf of a woman who claims she did not receive proper information or care at Mercy Health Partners, a Catholic hospital in Muskegon, Mich., when her water broke 18 weeks into her pregnancy.
Tamesha Means says the hospital staff sent her home twice despite "excruciating" pain and "virtually no chance that her pregnancy could survive," according to an ACLU news release. Mercy physicians did not tell Ms. Means that terminating her pregnancy was an option, according to the ACLU.
When she returned to the hospital a third time after developing an infection, the hospital allegedly prepared discharge paperwork to send her home once more. It was then she began to deliver, and hospital staff tended to her miscarriage at that time, according to the news release. The fetus died soon after.
Ms. Means is not suing the hospital, however. Instead, the plaintiffs are focusing their challenge on the U.S. Conference of Bishops' ethical and religious directives. The lawsuit claims the directives require Catholic hospitals to avoid abortions or informing patients of alternative options, even when doing so risks a woman's health or life.
The lawsuit also alleges that the bishops are ultimately responsible for unnecessary trauma and harm Ms. Means and other pregnant women have experienced in similar situations at Catholic hospitals.
Medical experts who reviewed the case said Ms. Means' fetus had virtually no chance of surviving, and physicians usually induce labor or surgically remove the fetus in these cases to reduce the mother's chances of infection, according to a New York Times report.
Mercy Health in Muskegon and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops declined comment in the New York Times report.
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