With the end of Roe on so many of our minds, it might surprise those of us in liberal Seattle just how much abortion access in our state is under the control of the Catholic Church.
As Leah Rutman, policy counsel at the ACLU of Washington, put it, "Having the right to abortion does not mean you have access to it."
Washington is just one of a handful of states in which more than 40% of hospital beds are controlled by Catholic doctrine. This shift became more acute with the 2021 merger of Virginia Mason and CHI Franciscan, creating Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, which operates 11 hospitals and 300 sites of care. With that merger, Virginia Mason said it would "not become Catholic," according to reporting by The News Tribune, but it also would no longer provide "elective" abortions or participate in the state's Death with Dignity process.
