Was born at Virginia Mason, and have received excellent care from them for many years. This is bullshit. I will not be returning to them if this merger goes through.

“The issue is seen as particularly urgent in Washington, where Swedish Medical Center — the largest nonprofit health care system in the Puget Sound area — merged with Providence Health & Services in 2012 and stopped providing emergency services to end pregnancies at the hospital. Bellingham and other Washington cities saw similar service cessations following Catholic takeovers of non-Catholic hospitals.”

[...]

“Research shows most Catholic facilities do not explicitly inform patients about their faith-based care restrictions and that physicians, particularly OB-GYNs, often struggle to arrange workarounds to get patients care they need, such as birth controls. Doctors say they are discouraged from even informing patients about medical options forbidden by the Roman Catholic Church.

“Washington advocacy groups are particularly worried the merger will reduce access to services in Yakima, where Virginia Mason Memorial is the only hospital.”