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"Civil Rights Groups File Suit Over Hospital's Religious Directives"
By Mark A. Weaver
Contributing Writer
The ACLU of Florida, along with three other civil rights and women's groups, filed suit in August against the City of St. Petersburg and the Bayfront Medical Center. The lawsuit challenges the merger of Bayfront with BayCare Health System, which requires its member institutions to follow Roman Catholic religious directives on health care.
As a requirement of the merger with BayCare, Bayfront, formerly a cityowned hospital, is required to provide health care in accordance with the Ethical and Religious Directives (ERDs) of the Catholic Bishops. These religious mandates affect all types of health care from abortions and artificial insemination to "morning after" pills for rape victims as well as endoflife care. The most dramatic change resulting from the merger was an end to elective abortions.
In addition to the ACLU, the National Organization for Women, Planned Parenthood and Americans United for Separation of Church and State are also named plaintiffs in the case, which contends the merger between the citysubsidized Bayfront Medical Center and the Catholicowned BayCare hospitals violates the separation of church and state, specifically the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
A central concern in the case involves the issue of how Bayfront intends to apply the church's ERDs to the health care "judgment calls" doctors are required to make on a regular basis.
"It's unconstitutional for a religious gatekeeper to determine the nature of health care services in a public hospital," said ACLU of Florida cooperating attorney Marcia Cohen. "Bayfront serves patients of many different faiths and backgrounds whose religious freedom must be protected. Their health care choices should be based on the best medical advice, not on religious restrictions."
The civil rights organizations argue that Bayfront remains a public hospital, and therefore barred from providing religiouslybased health care. Bayfront operates under a lease agreement with the City of St. Petersburg. Most of the medical center sits on cityowned land leased for $10 a year. The city retains fee ownership of Bayfront, its fixtures and its surrounding premises.
The controversy started in 1997 when Bayfront Medical Center and five other area hospitals merged under the name of BayCare Health System, Inc. in order to consolidate services and cut costs. Two of the hospitals, St. Joseph's in Tampa and St. Anthony's in St. Petersburg, are Catholicowned and the merger agreement required the other hospitals to abide by the Catholic Church's Ethical and Religious Directives for Health Care.
Both parties eventually sued each other over the dispute. The city claimed the Catholic directives were in violation of the hospital's lease agreement, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion. Since spring, officials from Bayfront, BayCare and the city have been attempting to negotiate an outofcourt settlement. Talks are continuing. Bayfront amended its merger agreement with BayCare to exempt it from the directives. However, according to ACLU attorney Cohen, the amended language permits Bayshore to impose the ERDs at any time.
