Whether the researcher was perfectly accurate in her examination of the discharge records of 176 Catholic hospitals in seven states is debatable; what is not debatable is that sterilizations were commonly performed at a large number of these hospitals. Whether it was nearly half of them or not does not negate the fact that the procedure, despite being condemned by the Church, was done in spite of that condemnation. Furthermore, the author of the study, Sandra S. Hapenney, who has a doctorate from Baylor in Church-State studies, is a Catholic herself. She had hoped that her work would motivate bishops to discipline those hospitals that were guilty, especially those that were under their direct control.
Asbury Park Press. com: Shannon Mullen: If reproductive sterilization is against the teachings of the Catholic Church, why are Catholic hospitals performing these procedures?That’s the question being raised by a researcher at Baylor University whose analysis of patient discharge records suggests that thousands of women have elected to have tubal ligation surgery at Catholic hospitals across the U.S. Read full report here.
