Rachel Bertsche reports: When Angela Valavanis established her birth plan for delivering her youngest child, she indicated that if a C-section was medically necessary, she wanted to get a tubal ligation at the same time. But, at the last minute, the Illinois mom was denied the sterilization surgery because the hospital where she was delivering was a Catholic institution and policy dictated it couldn’t perform contraceptive procedures — something Valavanis was never made aware of throughout her pregnancy.
Under federal law, religious hospitals can choose not to allow sterilization and other forms of birth control. Valavanis says she understands a doctor not wanting to perform a procedure based on religious beliefs. This is different. The institution never made it clear their policies would not allow tubal ligation. To make matters worse, Valavanis was told she should wait months to have the tubal litigation surgery.
“The idea that I would go through a surgery and six weeks of healing and then go in for a second surgery for this was completely ridiculous to me,” she says. Performing tubal ligations during a C-section, because the patient is already in surgery, is common practice so as to avoid extra, unnecessary operations. “Had I known about all of this in advance, I would have reconsidered my options and likely have gone to a different hospital.”This is not an isolated case, and the denial of tubal ligation experienced by Valavanis two years ago, often affects lower income women. One study by the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology shows that these same women often end up pregnant within a year. Once again the religions beliefs imposed upon lower income women, denying them birth control and sterilization, often result in unintended pregnancies and ultimately abortions - the very thing 'pro-life' religious individuals and institutions claim they want to prevent.
The fact is any surgery can be physically and emotionally traumatizing - and life-threatening. Valavanis opted not to go through two invasive surgeries. Under the new Illinois law, religious health care institutions must ensure that patients are well informed, in advance, of medical treatment limitations due to religious beliefs.
The bill has been passed in the Senate, which has a Democratic majority, and is pending a decision in the House, which also has a Democratic majority. If passed, the Republican Governor Rauner can opt not to sign the bill into law.
Seems like a no-brainer. But given the amount of Republican laws restricting women's reproductive rights in just in the last year, there is no guarantee that Rauner will stand up for women's rights and allow passage.
The battle for reproductive freedom is an ongoing struggle that will most likely continue past our lifetimes. We continue this fight for our daughters, and granddaughters, because our mothers, grandmothers, and male/female pro-choice supporters did the same for us. There are many ways we can support reproductive rights. Here are 10 large/small pro-choice organizations/Facebook pages you can visit/join now. They offer ways to help and be helped.
Planned ParenthoodRead more:
NARAL/Pro-Choice America
NOW
NAF/National Abortion Federation
UniteWomen.org
Abortion.com
Fight Laws Against Women
Abigail Adams Brigade
One Millon Vaginas
Pro-Choice Liberals
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The Guttmacher Institute is an excellent source of current reproductive rights legislation.
Patricia Miller/The Atlantic.
Rachel Bertsche/Yahoo.com
Dean Olson/State Journal Register
Thank you to the ACLU and the Democrats in Illinois for pushing this new legislation.
If you feel you have been discriminated due to the religious beliefs of a person, corporation, or institution, contact the ACLU online. You can also write to the ACLU at 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor, New York NY 10004 or call 212-549-2500.