LEGAL UPDATE
AWPHD Mid-Year Membership Meeting
June 24, 2013
Campbell’s Resort
Chelan, Washington
Bradley Berg
206.447.8970 | bergb@foster.com
Rev. 12.11
ACLU OPPOSITION TO AFFILIATIONS BETWEEN PHDS AND
CATHOLIC HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATIONS
 ACLU has expressed concern that affiliations
between PHDs and Catholic health care
organizations will reduce or eliminate access to:
 Reproductive health care services
 End of life health care services
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ACLU OPPOSITION TO AFFILIATIONS BETWEEN PHDS AND
CATHOLIC HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATIONS
 ACLU has argued that the proposed affiliations
may violate a PHD’s obligations under:
 The Reproductive Privacy Act
 Article I, Section 11, of the Washington
Constitution (establishment of religion clause)
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SCOPE OF REPRODUCTIVE/END OF LIFE SERVICES
 Abortion
 Contraception
 Family planning
 Emergency contraception (Plan B)
 Fertility treatments
 Elective sterilizations (tubal ligations vasectomies)
 Living wills/advance directives
 Assisted Suicide
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WASHINGTON’S REPRODUCTIVE PRIVACY ACT, RCW 9.02
 “Every individual has the fundamental right to choose or
refuse birth control”
 “Every woman has the fundamental right to choose or
refuse… abortion.”
 The Act prohibits the state from interfering with these
fundamental rights.
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WASHINGTON’S REPRODUCTIVE PRIVACY ACT, RCW 9.02
RCW 9.02.160: If the state provides, directly or by contract,
maternity care benefits, services, or information to
women through any program administered or funded in
whole or in part by the state, the state shall also provide
women otherwise eligible for any such program with
substantially equivalent benefits, services, or information
to permit them to voluntarily terminate their pregnancies.
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AMBIGUOUS TERMS IN REPRODUCTIVE PRIVACY ACT
 “maternity care benefits,
service, or information”
 “program”
 “substantially equivalent”
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WASHINGTON STATE CONSTITUTION
Article I, Section 11, of the Washington
Constitution (Establishment Clause)
 “No public money or property shall be appropriated for or
applied to any religious worship, exercise or instruction, or the
support of any religious establishment . . . .”
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DEATH WITH DIGNITY ACT
 Allows terminally ill adults to access lethal doses of
medication from medical and osteopathic physicians
 Act expressly states that health care providers are not
required to participate under the Act or allow participation
on their premises
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