PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson Healthcare hospital commissioners were told at a meeting this week that the hospital should provide abortion services.
“If you can have your tubes tied here at the hospital, you should also have access to other reproductive health care,” Christel Hildebrandt of Port Townsend said at a hospital board meeting Wednesday.
The Seattle office of the American Civil Liberties Union accused the East Jefferson County hospital of being out of compliance with state law in its provision of abortion services in a Feb. 18 letter addressed to the hospital board and CEO Mike Glenn.
The letter asks that the hospital change its policies and practices “to fulfill its obligations under the Reproductive Privacy Act.”
Hildebrandt was one of three people, accompanied by two others who remained silent, who spoke up to convince the hospital to offer or facilitate abortions.
“There is no policy that precludes abortion services being provided,” Glenn said in response.
“I’m told that from time to time, the staff has reviewed the issue and have chosen to only provide the care that we can offer in an efficient, compassionate, best-practices manner,” he added.
Since receiving the ACLU letter, Glenn has been developing a written response, “which could be ready in a few days,” according to Kate Burke, the hospital’s marketing director.
The ACLU also sent letters of concern to Whidbey General Hospital in Coupeville and Mason General Hospital in Shelton.
At the same time, it filed a lawsuit against Skagit Valley Hospital alleging noncompliance with state law because it routinely refers patients to Planned Parenthood or other private clinics, rather than providing abortions on-site.
Leah Rutman, ACLU’s policy counsel, who wrote the letter, said the ACLU is examining the policies of all public hospitals in the state.
Neither Olympic Medical Center nor Forks Community Hospital — the other two hospitals on the North Olympic Peninsula — received letters from the ACLU like that sent to Jefferson Healthcare.
In the letter to Jefferson Healthcare, the ACLU cites an August 2013 state attorney general opinion.
The opinion says state law requires a public hospital that provides maternity care service or information to also provide “substantially equivalent benefits, services or information” regarding contraception and abortion.
“We express no opinion on exactly how hospital districts may comply with this requirement,” the attorney general’s opinion says.
The ACLU is disputing the idea that referring patients off-site for abortions is substantially equivalent to the maternity care the hospital offers.
Jefferson Healthcare officials have stated that the low number of annual abortions — 55 in 2013 — makes it difficult for abortion providers to establish a presence in the county in an efficient, cost-effective way.
According to the state Department of Health’s statistics for 2013, Jefferson County has the second highest per capita rate of abortions in the state, reporting 15.5 out of 1,000 women in childbearing age between 14 and 44 opting for the procedure.
The highest rate was Pierce County, with 16.8 per 1,000, or 2,794 abortions.
Clallam County, with an 11.8-per-1,000 rate and 121 abortions, came in 11th.
In Jefferson County, abortion referrals — which are up to the individual medical provider — are made for clinics in Port Angeles, Bremerton and Seattle, according to Julia Danskin, a nurse with the Jefferson County Department of Public Health.
Dr. Joseph Mattern, Jefferson Healthcare chief medical officer, has said this referral process best serves the patients who need the service.
During the public comment period, Debbie Jahnke said the process discriminates against low-income women.
“When you require people to leave town multiple times for a medical abortion or a surgical abortion, you are limiting their access,” she said.
“Poor women are the least able to do this, so it’s a matter of equal treatment, and I think you need to reconsider this.”
Those who asked for abortion services at the hospital plan to conduct a strategy meeting to discuss their next steps next week.
The meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Manresa Castle, 651 Cleveland St., Port Townsend.
Hildebrandt said the strategy meeting is for people to discuss how best to address access to reproductive health care services with the hospital commissioners.
The public is invited, and hospital commissioners are welcome to attend, she said.
The meeting will work toward presenting a unified voice at the next commissioners meeting at 3:30 p.m. March 25 in the hospital auditorium, 834 Sheridan St., she said.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
