http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification 720 https://escholarship.org/uc/bixbycenter/rss Recent eScholarship items from Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health Sat, 13 Jun 2026 05:03:18 +0000 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8dm907hm As Catholic-owned hospitals merge with or take over other facilities, they impose restrictions on reproductive health services, including abortion and contraceptive services. Our interviews with US obstetrician–gynecologists working in Catholic-owned hospitals revealed that they are also restricted in managing miscarriages. Catholic-owned hospital ethics committees denied approval of uterine evacuation while fetal heart tones were still present, forcing physicians to delay care or transport miscarrying patients to non–Catholic-owned facilities. Some physicians intentionally violated protocol because they felt patient safety was compromised. Although Catholic doctrine officially deems abortion permissible to preserve the life of the woman, Catholic-owned hospital ethics committees differ in their interpretation of how much health risk constitutes a threat to a woman’s life and therefore how much risk must be present before they approve the intervention. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8dm907hm Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0000 Freedman, Lori Landy, Uta Steinauer, Jody