The ruling comes after the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington sued Mount Vernon, Wash.-based Skagit Regional Health, one of the state’s largest public hospital districts, and its flagship hospital, Mount Vernon-based Skagit Valley Hospital. The union sued the hospital for routinely deferring patients to Planned Parenthood for abortions, according to the report.
This violates the state’s Reproductive Privacy Act, which requires public hospitals to provide abortion services if they offer maternity services, among other provisions. In the lawsuit, the hospital claimed it approves of onsite abortions, but none of its current staff are willing to perform them, according to the report.
The judge ruled that individual providers may opt out of providing the service, but entire hospitals cannot do so, according to the report.
More articles on legal and regulatory issues:
Obama health officials uphold California’s required abortion coverage
Device maker Analogic to pay $15M for bribery violations
Jury awards former Covenant Medical Center employee $500k for wrongful termination
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