Women's Health Week: It's time to get informed on religious refusals to provide health care.

It was almost one year ago that the media was in an tizzy about Sister Margaret McBride, the nun who was excommunicated for allowing a life-saving abortion in the Catholic-affiliated St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona. When the hospital stood by its decision to save a 27 year old mother of four, the local bishop stripped them of their Catholic status.

Despite this well-publicized case, an article in the Washington Post and, and a New York Times editorial, I still don't think we’ve reached a "critical mass" of people who are aware of how the religious beliefs of hospitals, doctors and other health care providers influence our access to health care.

As we noted in Below the Radar, released earlier this year, some hospitals put women's lives at risk by denying care for pregnancy complications – those ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages. Just this month, Ms. Magazine did a feature on the denial of reproductive health care at Catholic-affiliated hospitals, and followed up with a blog that characterized these refusals as "Catholic Death Panels." Perhaps this is the catchy phrase that will help us finally reach our critical mass.

Do your part this women's health week. Forward this to at least one person – woman or man, childbearing age, over or under – who might not know that providers' religious beliefs can affect access to health care services or information, from your health insurance provider, to end-of-life care, to infertility treatment, to which drugs you can get from your local pharmacy. Get informed!