Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has been outspoken against abortion.
Credit: Gabriel Bouys

The rapid growth of Catholic-affiliated hospitals in the U.S. could significantly reduce access to inpatient sterilization procedures, according to a new study that examines the rising influence of religion on reproductive health services.

The study, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, estimates that Catholic hospitals reduce the per-bed annual rates of inpatient abortions by 30 percent, and tubal ligations, or sterilization, by 31 percent.

Those impacts are being magnified by rapid consolidation among hospitals nationwide, a trend that resulted in a 22 percent increase in Catholic-sponsored or Catholic-affiliated hospitals between 2001 and 2016. The study found that the restrictions on reproductive health services at those facilities translates to more than 9,500 fewer tubal ligations per year.

“This alone represents a substantial cost to women, who must subsequently rely on other, more inconvenient suboptimal forms of contraception,” the study concluded.

The finding comes amid increasing debate over the influence of Catholic doctrine on access to reproductive health services. The […]