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Patients want to know about religious hospital policies that restrict reproductive health care options

Women of all faiths and across the faith spectrum turn to religious hospitals for their health care needs. However, many patients are unaware that these hospitals can restrict care, especially reproductive health care, due to religious objections.

We conducted a national survey of women ages 18-45 and found that patients of all faiths and levels of religiosity want specific information about how care is restricted. They want information about all three standard means of miscarriage management, which include “wait and see”, medication abortion, and surgical abortion. In cases where miscarriage must be managed with procedures that are banned by religious restrictions, women want hospital personnel to assist them with transfer to hospitals that do provide those services.

The study found that the vast majority of women think religious restrictions to safe, medically-accepted procedures should not be allowed.

Learn more about the results of this study in “Religious hospital policies on reproductive care: What do patients want to know?” out now in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

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