Pilot Study: Policies of Religiously-Affiliated Health Care Facilities in the U.S. South

Katherine Franke and Elizabeth Reiner Platt.

In 2018, the Law, Rights, and Religion Project published a report on the impact of religious policies at Catholic hospitals on access to sexual and reproductive health care. While the limits of Catholic care are increasingly well-documented, little has been published on access to comprehensive, non-discriminatory sexual and reproductive health care in non-Catholic, religiously-affiliated hospitals, including Baptist and Adventist facilities. This is in large part because, unlike Catholic hospitals, which are regulated by a central authority (the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops), other religiously-affiliated providers are not bound by an explicit, written set of religious guidelines. Thus, determining precisely how a facility’s religious identity impacts their institutional policies is a complex undertaking.

This pilot project seeks to investigate and raise awareness about the impacts of religiously-affiliated heath care providers in the U.S. South, both with respect to these institutions acting as employers and as health care providers. We seek to document the prevalence of faith-based health providers in several states including North Carolina, Florida, Texas, and Georgia; their employment policies (e.g., employee health insurance exclusions, nondiscrimination policies); number of employees; public funding received; limits on care provided to the public; efforts to receive religious exemptions from legal requirements; and whether existing legal exemptions or other state policies limit access to care.