Judge Dismisses Abortion Lawsuit Against Catholic Hospital

• Get Patch’s daily newsletter and real-time news alert

LIVONIA, MI – A federal court on Monday threw out a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan that attempted to force a Catholic hospital system to provide abortion services despite its religious convictions.

The ACLU sued Livonia-based Trinity Health Corp. in July for failing to provide emergency abortion services for women with pregnancy complications, which the civil rights group led them to become septic,hemorrhage, contract life-threatening infections and suffer pain.

Trinity doctors were “forced to follow religious directives rather than best medical practices,” the ACLU said at the time.

Kevin Theriot, a lawyer for the Alliance Defending Attorneys who represented several pro-life groups that joined the suit, said the suit was an attempt to force the hospital to abandon its belief system.

“No American should be forced to commit an abortion — least of all faith-based medical workers who went into the profession to follow their faith and save lives, not take them,” Theriot said in a statement. “No law requires religious hospitals and medical personnel to commit abortions against their faith and conscience, and, in fact, federal law directly prohibits the government from engaging in any such coercion.”

See Also

• Catholic Hospital Failed to Provide Emergency Abortions: ACLU

U.S. District Judge Gershwin Drain sided with Trinity, which had argued the ACLU lacked the standing to bring the complaint.

“Therefore, even assuming that the complaint contains sufficient factual matter to establish past actual harm — considering the vagueness of the allegation, this is dubious — the allegations of past exposure to defendants’ illegal conduct is not sufficient to create standing,” he wrote.

The ACLU had argued that the lawsuit was “ripe for review,” but the court found nothing had happened to warrant court action.

“Obviously, pregnancy alone is not a ‘particular condition’ that requires the termination of said pregnancy. To find the claim to be ripe for review on the facts pleaded before this Court would be to grant a cause of action to every pregnant woman in the state of Michigan upon the date of conception,” the court said. “Accordingly, the alleged harm has not risen beyond a speculative nature and is not ripe for review.”

The ACLU of Michigan referred requests for comment to its national press office, which did not immediately return calls to Patch.

Trinity Health operates 86 facilities in 21 states. Its southeast Michigan location, operated under the Saint Joseph health System, include St. Mary Mercy Livonia, St. Joseph Oakland in Pontiac, St. Joseph Mercy Livingston in Howell, St. Joseph Mercy Chelsea and St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor.

Read the full ruling below.