Profile: Save Secular Healthcare Washington
Save Secular Healthcare Washington (SSHWA) was formed in the summer of 2020 after Virginia Mason announced its intent to merge with CHI Franciscan, a part of the giant Catholic conglomerate CommonSpirit. Realizing that this change would result in a monopoly of religious-based medical services in Bremerton and surrounding areas, founder Susan Young joined with others to start a campaign to block the merger. The group has since grown in size, expanded the scope of its activities and deepened its expertise.
SSHWA seeks to halt expanded control of secular medical institutions by organizations that block access to specific services based on religious doctrine rather than science or the practice of medicine. Most often these limits are imposed by the Ethical and Religious Directives (ERDs), the guides for all Catholic health systems, though similar constraints have been seen in secular and other religious organizations as well.
SSHWA is not opposed to any religion and respects the rights of individuals to practice the faith of their choice. Instead, they object to religious doctrine that restricts access to safe and legal health care services. Their belief is that everyone should have access to a full range of legally available quality health care services and that health systems must prioritize patient needs over religious doctrine.
Impact of the Ethical and Religious Directives
First released in the 1960s, the ERDs are authored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, a group of men with no medical backgrounds. The Directives address procedures and treatments that this group terms "immoral" or "potentially scandalous," though all are considered mainstream medical practice. Among other things, the 77 Directives in the 2018 revision of the ERDs specifically block these common procedures:
· Abortion
· Voluntary sterilization (hysterectomies, vasectomies, etc.)
· Contraception
· Surrogacy
· Hormone therapy
· Infertility treatments
· End of life care, including Advance Directives and medical aid in dying (e.g., Washington's Death with Dignity provisions)
Most audiences are shocked when they hear that such common medical procedures are now blocked by religious directives at the medical facilities that they frequent. The existence and impact of the ERDs are almost completely hidden from public view, embedded in care policies and the legal agreements of physicians, employees, and facilities. Occasionally they emerge into public view. An example is when a severely hemorrhaging woman suffering a miscarriage sought help at a Bellingham hospital and was denied the critical care she needed because there was still a fetal heartbeat. (She and her husband ultimately drove to a Seattle-area hospital instead, probably saving her life.) Another rare public glimpse into this impact appeared when Peter Kreidler, twin brother of Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, was unable to obtain information on Death with Dignity provisions when considering his end-of-life choices. Too often these denials of care are never heard because they impact those with little public voice - the poor, those in rural areas, those near the end of life and transgender and LGBTQIA+ individuals.
The work of SSHWA
Formed during the merger process of Virginia Mason as a letter-writing campaign, SSHWA has expanded its activities to challenge any limitations to the practice of what they call Comprehensive Healthcare:
All valid medical options are discussed
Patients have informed consent - they were provided all material information regarding risks, benefits, and alternatives
The decisions of the patient are respected
Besides educational efforts, SSHWA has moved into regulatory and legislative action. They forced public meetings to be held for hospice service applicants to make public their hidden policies and then challenged these providers in discussion and written public comments. Active participants during the 2022 Washington legislative session, they are members of the coalition supporting the Keep Our Care Act (Senate Bill 5688) to provide public review of hospital mergers. Recently they started an exploratory group in Kitsap County to consider forming a public hospital district - the first step towards providing public input and control into changes to regional medical systems.
Washington State is a flashpoint for religious control of medical facilities due to its lax regulatory oversight, lack of statutes requiring public accountability and financially strapped regional hospitals that are ripe for mergers. The state now leads the nation in hospital beds controlled by religious interests (about 50%, compared with 17% nationally) and continued mergers are likely, especially as the Keep Our Care Act failed to advance again in the 2022 legislative session but is likely to return in the 2023 session.
If you are interested in helping with these inequities, you can sign up for the SSHWA weekly newsletter to hear about legislative and public testimony actions to further these goals. The group also hosts a web site and a list of materials.
Resources:
Email: SaveSecularHealthcareWA@gmail.com
LiveBinder: A repository of supporting information, organized with tabs like a binder