Merger Mania: Religious Hospital Mergers and Access to Reproductive Health Services

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One of the most significant but least noticed changes in the current health care market is the increase in the size and influence of religious health systems and the impact of this growth on access to reproductive health services. While a number of religious institutions, most significantly the Catholic church, prohibit or discourage treatments for infertility, contraception, sterilization, and abortion, advocates can use several innovative tools and strategies to help prevent the elimination of legal and necessary reproductive health services.

By Susan Berke Fogel and Lourdes A. Rivera From May - June 1999