Every woman in Knoxville ought to be emailed the News-Sentinel story about this outrageous practice. I had no idea that St. Mary's prohibited tubal ligations, and now that I do know, I will never use that hospital again.

Or Catholists?

If they're all about saving the soul, as this announcement would indicate, then why the hell wouldn't they just allow the body to expire?

Why even practice medicine, unless it is only to fill the coffers?

Does Eric Rudolph sit on the Board of Directors?
I know he was really pissed about white women not having enough babies.
The old brown people are scary bit and all that.

Recently over 6 billion and soon to be 7 billion people on a planet that can reasonably sustain 2 billion. What are they thinking? I can't find anything about tubal ligation in my Bible! And that "be fruitful and multiply" thing has been way overdone as my above numbers indicate.

Choice is just a concept without scientists willing to challenge cultural norms. Everyone got your tickets to Galileo? -- s.

Unless you have one of the few insurance policies that allows the birthing center, St. Mary's is the best place in town to have a baby. The nun visiting your room a few hours after delivery to give a pep talk on having MORE children is funny. Statistically, cesareans and scheduled births are huge numbers in this state, but that doesn't mean insurance allows you to hospital shop. It sounds conspiracy theory, tinfoil hat paranoid, but with pharmacists allowed to refuse birth control scripts, reproductive rights ARE being manipulated by the religious right.

We need more birth control, not less. Over population is killing our planet. I'm speechless that anyone would think that a woman having her tubes tied is a bad thing. Mercy me! Are we back in the Dark Ages? Should I dust off my chastity belt?

The only thing that surprises me is that this surprises anybody. The Catholic Church's policies have been consistent in these areas, and any institution it controls will tow the line. Like it or not. But the Church has always had an open door policy: if you don't like it, leave. They'll stay in business.

This has produced more, and more interesting, discussion than I anticipated when I found it in my insomniatic state early this morning.

Yes, as a Catholic hospital, they have a right to follow what they believe. I think I found it interesting because Baptist is now a Catholic hospital. Baptists are considered conservative yet welcomed both tubes being tied and childless couple seeking embryos to adopt. And, now they can't do that because of the merger with St. Mary's. It seems to me if the two hospitals are keeping their previous names, that they could allow them to keep certain previous policies.

The article did say that it would allow tubal ligation if future pregnancy would endanger the woman's life. Kind of like allow abortion only in cases of rape or incest.

It just seems to me that tying tubes and adopting embryons are very, very personal questions that good Christians could reach different conclusions regarding.

And, then there is the question about insurance reimbursement. It's my understanding that these days a tubal ligation isn't a very big deal, but isn't it less expensive if done at the time of a delivery? And what if the insurance company doesn't recognize any other hospital in town? Is there an exception for procedures not done by the insured facilities.

I've heard good things about birthing babies at St. Mary's. Family members have used Parkwest for births and been very happy. Although, one would have preferred to use Baptist because of the religion thing.

And, me, I'm past the stage of birthing or needing tubes tyed. It still doesn't make complete sense to me though.

pgs

Pam Strickland

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." ~Kurt Vonnegut