When people are worried about their jobs, and don't understand the rules (or are fearful of being seen as trying to work around them), bad things can happen.
In this case, a woman, suffering from a dislodged IUD, was told that her doctor couldn't help her because she was working in a hospital that was under Catholic ownership, and anything having to do with artificial birth control was verboten.
And, the woman discovered, her "in network" insurance was all under similar Catholic ownership, and that to get treated she would need to change her insurance network, a multi-month process.
'The doctor left Jones to confer with colleagues, before returning to confirm that her “hands [were] tied,” according to two complaints filed by the ACLU of Illinois. Not only could she not help her, the doctor said, but no one in Jones’ health insurance network could remove the IUD, because all of them followed similar restrictions. Mercy, like many Catholic providers, follows directives issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that restrict access to an array of services, including abortion care, tubal ligations, and contraception.'
It turns out that her doctor misunderstood the rules (or so the hospital says later), but that misuderstanding was clearly a result of not only wanting to violate the employer regulations, but not wanting to be seen as getting anywhere close to doing so.
But that the problem happened at all, that a woman who was bleeding and in pain was turned away because someone thought that the religious owners of their medical institution would disapprove of and possibly discipline doctors who dared to treat her, is a major indictment of the idea of letting the religious beliefs of a hospital owner dictate what medical services are and aren't allowed.
Complaint: Citing Catholic Rules, Doctor Turns Away Bleeding Woman With Dislodged IUD – Rewire
“It felt heartbreaking,” said Melanie Jones. “It felt like they were telling me that I had done something wrong, that I had made a mistake and therefore they were not going to help me; that they stigmatized me, saying that I was doing something wrong, when I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m doing something that’s well within my legal rights.”
So much for the Hippocratic oath.