Austin's Seton Hospital Refuses High-Risk Women due to "Catholic Teaching"

File this under "OMFG." As reported in the Austin-American Statesman, the "Seton Family of Hospitals," a Catholic hospital operating organization that runs Brackenridge, Austin's public, safety-net hospital, is refusing to continue operating a clinic that sees "high risk" pregnant women who need birth control after pregnancy to keep them, you know, alive. Jesus Christmas.

If this sounds irritatingly familiar, it is:

In 2001 and 2002, before Central Health was created, University Medical Center, then called Brackenridge Hospital, was the site of a prolonged battle over sterilization services for women, resulting in the city agreeing to create a "hospital within a hospital" to satisfy the Vatican. Vatican officials said that sterilizations could not be performed in a Catholic-operated hospital, even one that is publicly owned.

Seton also has a contract to provide nurse services to the Austin Independent School District, and nurses under Seton's employ, even if they are seeing students in Austin's public schools, are prohibited from discussing birth control with students.

The board that supervises the hospital is holding its first public hearing on the budget Sept. 1 at 5:30 p.m. at Central Health headquarters, 1111 E. Cesar Chavez St.