Faith-Based Healthcare is not Opposed to Quality Care

Too many Americans are led to believe that quality healthcare and ethical, faithful healthcare are diametrically opposed to each other. Catholic hospitals, some say, have no right to follow their church’s teachings about the dignity of human life when it comes to their patients’ treatment plans, especially expecting mothers and their unborn children. 

But the truth is that Catholic social teaching on human life is in complete alignment with the highest quality healthcare. And at Solidarity HealthShare, we see patients thrive from life-affirming care time and again.

Catholic Hospitals Provide Much of the Care in the U.S.

By number of beds, four of the ten largest U.S. hospital chains are Catholic. In fact, there are more than 600 Catholic general hospitals in the United States, roughly 100 of which are managed by Catholic chains. At these hospitals, the Catholic teachings on the inherent value of life should govern the way nurses and doctors treat their patients – born and unborn. In other words: doctors at these hospitals should not intentionally end the life of an innocent patient.

These hospitals have served patients for decades with exemplary life-saving care. In fact, 16 percent of all births take place in Catholic and Catholic-affiliated hospitals each year. The Catholic healthcare workers employed at these facilities frequently report that refusing to perform an abortion does not limit or hinder the care they can provide.  

Catholic Medical Ethics and Holistic Healthcare Go Hand in Hand

Like Catholic Hospitals, Solidarity HealthShare believes that Catholic medical ethics and holistic health care go hand in hand. We offer our Members access to a network of faithful healthcare providers who are trained to deliver lifesaving care to patients, especially pregnant mothers, without ever having to perform an abortion. Likewise, Members’ shared dollars are never used to pay for treatments or procedures that destroy human life.

Doctors and nurses should never have to choose between their work and their faith. Especially when their faith complements good medicine so well. Patients can rest assured that Catholic medicine will heal, not harm, just has it has for years.