VATICAN CITY, VATICAN - MARCH 13: A woman holds rosary beads.Dan Kitwood/Getty
Left-leaning states are trying to preserve access to abortion—but Catholic health care mergers often stand in the way.
First, we travel with Reveal’s Nina Martin to New Mexico’s rural Otero County, where a recent hospital merger has upended the landscape of reproductive care. Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center used to be where people in the county could go to access abortion, birth control, and gender-affirming services. But when the hospital merged with a Catholic health care system out of Texas, CHRISTUS Health, it had to begin following the rules of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. Written by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the doctrine limits or bans a reproductive services, including birth control, sterilization, abortion and gender-affirming care.
The second segment of the episode takes place in the town of Alamogordo, New Mexico, the site of the hospital merger. Martin discovers how the new Catholic rules at the hospital are affecting patients. She interviews experts about how those same rules affect care at other Catholic hospitals nationwide.
Lastly, Laura C. Morel profiles Kelly Flynn, a physician whose clinics in North Carolina and Florida used to provide abortions to patients from all over the South. That was before the US Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022. Now, the rules are changing: North Carolina prohibits abortions after 12 weeks’ gestation, and Florida is considering a 6-week ban. In light of these tightening restrictions, Flynn has decided to open a new clinic in Virginia so that she can keep offering the reproductive health care that has become increasingly difficult to get.
