{"id":35723,"date":"2023-02-16T13:26:16","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T20:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/democratic-u-s-reps-condemn-mercy-hospitals-plan-to-end-female-sterilization\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:26:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:26:33","slug":"democratic-u-s-reps-condemn-mercy-hospitals-plan-to-end-female-sterilization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/democratic-u-s-reps-condemn-mercy-hospitals-plan-to-end-female-sterilization\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic U.S. reps condemn Mercy Hospital\u2019s plan to end female sterilization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mercy
Mercy Regional Medical Center and other rural hospital are concerned that cuts to the state Hospital Provider Fee would adversly affect them.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Five Democratic U.S. representatives from Colorado issued a joint statement on Thursday decrying Mercy Hospital\u2019s decision to stop providing tubal ligations, a form of permanent birth control, at the time of cesarean sections starting April 15.<\/p>\n

Reps. Diana DeGette, Yadira Caraveo, Jason Crow, Joe Neguse and Brittany Petterson \u2013 all members of the Congressional Pro-choice Caucus co-chaired by DeGette \u2013 said in a joint statement that all residents of Colorado \u201cdeserve access to the full spectrum of reproductive health care,\u201d including birth control.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the only hospital in Durango with a maternity ward, Mercy Hospital\u2019s decision to no longer provide patients with tubal ligations, including after a C-section, undermines Coloradans\u2019 right to access the care they need,\u201d the statement says.<\/p>\n

\"DeGette\"
DeGette<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The joint statement highlights Colorado\u2019s \u201clong history of safeguarding patients\u2019 right to reproductive care\u201d and says patients living in rural areas are no exception.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the only hospital in town decides it will no longer offer a certain medical service, it takes away the right of patients in that area to make that decision for themselves,\u201d the statement says.<\/p>\n

Mercy is the only hospital with labor and delivery services within 45 miles of Durango. The Durango Herald<\/em> reported in September that the hospital plans to do away with tubal ligations<\/a> \u2013 a procedure often referred to as getting one\u2019s tubes tied \u2013 in mid-April.<\/p>\n

Dr. Krista Ault, a general practitioner at La Plata Family Medicine and former director of family medicine at Mercy, said in September some forms of contraception, such as vasectomies, have been off limits for as long as Centura Health has owned the hospital.<\/p>\n

Exceptions will be made only for people who carry rare ovarian cancer or breast cancer genes, said Brie Todd, gynecologist at Four Corners OB\/GYN, who said she was briefed about the new policy in August. Four Corners OB\/GYN is an independent clinic that provides labor and delivery services at Mercy.<\/p>\n

Centura Health and Mercy Hospital did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.<\/p>\n

The hospital decided to stop offering ligations because the procedure doesn\u2019t align with Catholic values, Todd said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMedical decisions should be made between a patient and their provider, and no one else,\u201d the joint statement from Pro-choice Caucus members says.<\/p>\n

The representatives said Centura Health, Mercy\u2019s parent company, should reconsider its policy to not provide permanent birth control.<\/p>\n

Centura Health has served as a partnership between CommonSpirit Health, one of if not the largest Catholic health care institutions in the country, and AdventHealth, which is affiliated with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Centura announced the partnership between the two health care giants will end. Mercy is among hospitals that will be managed by CommonSpirit Health.<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congressional Pro-choice Caucus members say denying birth control undermines Coloradans\u2019 rights<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,68,1971],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-35723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-mercy-regional-medical-center","tag-reproduction"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35723"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83091,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35723\/revisions\/83091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35723"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=35723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}