Chicago, Ill., Sep 7, 2016 / 14:02 pm
Last month, a Chicago woman with a dislodged intrauterine device claimed she was turned down for removal of the device at a Catholic hospital, because her doctor said the procedure went against Catholic rules on contraception.
Melanie Jones, 28, slipped and fell in her bathroom, dislodging her copper IUD to the point that it needed removal. She visited her doctor at Mercy Medical Group at Dearborn Station, an off-site location of Chicago's Mercy Hospital and Medical Center.
She claimed her doctor said she could not remove the IUD due to the hospital's policy of following the U.S. Catholic bishop's ethical and religious directives for health care. Jones said the doctor also told her that every other hospital in her network followed the same restrictions.
Jones then filed a complaint with the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois against the hospital.