FROM SFLA NEWS

California Crazy Strikes Again: A Catholic Hospital Sued for Allegedly Refusing to Do an Abortion on a Woman Carrying Twins

Image
Kristi Hamrick - 15 Oct 2024

Freedom of Religion and Respect for LIFE are two pesky founding principles in America that radical abortion zealots in California can’t stand when it comes to abortion. Case in point: a new lawsuit filed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta against a Catholic hospital that reportedly declined to do an abortion.  While the events allegedly took place in February 2024, and the case was filed in September 2024, the left is pushing outrage in stories still being posted today. 

Left-wing activist “media” outlet The 19th tried to stir up controversy, alleging that a woman was sent away “with a bucket and towels” but without an abortion from Providence St. Joseph Hospital (Providence) in Eureka, California while pregnant with twins. Bonta, in bragging about a case against the Catholic hospital, indicated that a drive of 12 miles to a place where an abortion took place was too far for him. The 19th says that one or two women a year can’t get an abortion in the Catholic hospital dedicated to saving the lives of mother and child. But those are two lives too many, it seems, for the abortion lovers.  

Bonta is suing the hospital, claiming it violated a California law requiring hospitals to provide emergency and life-saving medical care. In his media on the case, his office said, “Providence violated California’s Emergency Services Law (the state level analogue to the federal EMTALA statute), the Unruh Civil Rights Act, and the Unfair Competition Law.” 

If EMTALA sounds familiar, it should. Earlier this year, the abortion radicals in the Biden-Harris Administration used EMTALA — the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act – designed to require hospitals to stabilize all patients in the emergency room to demand death by abortion as part of their “care.”  

As we said at the time of the Supreme Court case: “If you’re unclear whether abortion is a federal AND state issue, today’s hearing at the Supreme Court should remove all doubt. The Biden Administration’s weaponization of policy is unprecedented and can be seen in the Biden Administration’s misuse of EMTALA — the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act – a measure designed to ensure that poor people who can’t pay received medical care in an emergency room. EMTALA has been twisted by Biden’s abortion radicals to demand that in states with protective laws that embrace the preborn be forced to allow abortions in an ER.” 

While the loss of those twins is an unbelievable tragedy, this story may not be what it seems.  

According to the hospital itself, as reported by Catholic News Agency, “while elective abortions are not performed in Providence facilities, we do not deny emergency care. When it comes to complex pregnancies or situations in which a woman’s life is at risk, we provide all necessary interventions to protect and save the life of the mother.” 

As Students for Life Action (SFLAction) has written before, no law on the books in any state says a pregnant woman facing a life-threatening medical emergency should be denied life-saving care because of her pregnancy. This is the case in all 50 states, without exception.   

READ: Policy for Dummies: A Federal ‘Life of the Mother Protection Act’ Could Inoculate Against the Abortion Lobby Playing Stupid 

An underlying issue in this story is an effort to force faith-based hospitals to commit abortions in places where there are not a lot of medical professionals. For example, in a 2024 news article from Health Care Dive, more than 700 rural hospitals were facing closure risks, “largely caused by “inadequate” payments from private health plans that don’t cover the higher costs of care in rural communities, according to the report.” 

As the article in the 19th admits, “nearly 800,000 people have only Catholic or Catholic-affiliated birth hospitals within an hour’s drive, including pockets of Northern California.” In a country of more than 330,000,000 people, 800,000 is less than one percent of the population.  

But instead of working to open up healthcare options or even to try and gain support for their abortion radicalism, California officials have gone on the attack, attempting to force abortion into Catholic hospital emergency rooms and demanding Catholic medical practitioners violate their own conscience rights. 

This isn’t California’s first ant-Catholic, anti-First Amendment Freedoms kind of attack.  

Remember that current Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, while Attorney General of California, led unprecedented attacks on pro-life Americans, and he’s also pushing states to use EMTALA to force abortion into emergency rooms.  

In an opinion piece from SFLA President Kristan Hawkins during Becerra’s confirmation hearing, she observed:  

“Consider Becerra’s treatment of nuns. The Little Sisters of the Poor are an order that cares for the elderly poor. After Obamacare was passed, with its punishing mandate to subsidize both contraception and life-ending drugs and devices in private and public health plans, the Sisters fought all the way to the Supreme Court twice to follow their consciences, with Becerra suing to end their religious exemption. Becerra has also been a champion of legal efforts in California against places of worship being allowed to accommodate socially distanced believers during COVID. 

“… Consider also Becerra’s lack of respect for pro-life, non-profits trying to help young mothers in need. In NIFLA v. Becerra, the Supreme Court again had to restrain the California attorney general from forcing pregnancy care centers to promote abortion when women came to them for help. 

This clear violation of free speech rights wasn’t successful, but it said a lot about Becerra’s disdain for people with a different point of view on abortion, such as David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt. Becerra filed 15 felony charges against the pro-life journalists who uncovered the fact that Planned Parenthood had a side business in selling aborted infant body parts. Even the Los Angeles Times called the heavy-handed prosecution ‘a disturbing overreach.’” 

READ: President Trump & GOP: Abortion IS Federal. Check Out the Supreme Court’s Decision that Allows Federal Agencies to Force Abortion into States’ Emergency Rooms 

All in all, the lawsuit suggests that CA Attorney General Bonta wants to carry on the legacy of those who came before him. Both Becerra and former CA AG Kamala Harris, now at the top of the most radical, pro-abortion Democratic Party presidential ticket in U.S. History, have pushed coercion over choice on all things abortion.

Bonna put it like this: “With today’s lawsuit, I want to make this clear for all Californians: Abortion care is health care.” 

But Freedom of Religion still exists in the United States. And when it comes to abortion, if your “healthcare” kills people on purpose, you’re doing it wrong.  

As an update, Providence St. Joseph Hospital has a temporary agreement with California to provide emergency abortions, and it’s still unclear what this means. Prayers for Providence in court in the days ahead as the case continues. 

READ NEXT: Kamala Harris and Tim Walz Want to Wipe Your Memory on Their Records 

Share this post