Describing sterilization as “essential health care,” the American
Civil Liberties Union has filed a complaint with the US Department of
Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights against Ascension
Health, the nation’s largest Catholic hospital system, as well as a
subsidiary, Genesys Health System.Arguing that “Ascension and Genesys’s policy banning tubal ligations discriminates against … women on the basis of sex,” the ACLU called upon the federal government “to take steps to ensure that Ascension and Genesys adhere to the non-discrimination protections guaranteed by Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act.”