Washington hospitals that receive public funding and provide maternity services must also provide services or information about contraception and abortion, according to a legal opinion from Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson.
The attorney general issued the opinion in response to an April request from state Sen. Kevin Ranker (D-[Where?]). An affiliation between a public hospital and Vancouver, Wash.-based PeaceHealth, a Catholic system, caused debate in Sen. Ranker's district, according to a Seattle Times report.
Mr. Ferguson's opinion does not have the force of law, but many experts in the Seattle Times report said it's meaningful given the current rate of hospital consolidation and secular-religious hospital mergers.
Mr. Ferguson said if a public hospital district provides, either directly or by an outsourced contract, maternity care benefits, services or information to women through "any program administered or funded in whole or in part" by the district, it must also provide substantially equivalent benefits, services or information to permit them to terminate their pregnancies voluntarily. The hospitals must also abide by a state policy that every individual has the fundamental right to choose or refuse birth control.
The AG addressed the question of whether a public hospital district's subsidizing of a hospital that offers maternity care services amounts to a "program" that is "administered or funded in whole or in part by the state." Mr. Ferguson concluded that it does amount to such.
Sen. Ranker called the AG's opinion powerful and broad-reaching. "It's what I was hoping for when I posed the question to the attorney general, and I think it clarifies that women's reproductive rights need to be and are protected under the law in a public hospital district," he told the Seattle Times.
More Articles on Hospitals and Women's Health Services:
New Standards for Women's Clinics May Restrict Healthcare Access for Low-Income, Uninsured Women
8 Recent Women's Health Center Openings and Service Expansions
HHS: Contraception Coverage Rules Finalized