Find out if a hospital can stop inserting IUDs due to religion – 01/24/2024 – Health

The legality of the São Camilo Hospital guideline that prohibits the performance of contraceptive procedures due to the institution’s religious values ​​is a reason for disagreement among experts consulted by the report.

On the one hand, there is the argument that the denial does not offend medical law or the principles of bioethics. “If there is no risk to the integrity of the patient’s health, the private hospital may refuse to carry out the procedure due to religious precepts”, says lawyer Mérces da Silva Nunes, a specialist in medical law.

In contrast, the president of the OAB-SP Bioethics Commission, Henderson Fürst, argues that the hospital’s determination violates the right to family planning, provided for in the Federal Constitution. “The fact that it is a confessional hospital cannot restrict any technique that makes fundamental health rights viable and that makes family planning viable, which is also a health right, which is also a fundamental right”, said the lawyer to the report from Sheet.

The discussion began this Tuesday (23), after a patient at São Camilo in São Paulo revealed on social media that, during a consultation, she was informed by the doctor that she could not insert an IUD (intrauterine device) in the establishment, which follows values Catholics. The IUD is a small device that, when inserted into the uterus, prevents fertilization or the attachment of the fertilized egg.

In a note, Hospital São Camilo said that it has a guideline not to perform contraceptive procedures on men or women, and that it advises patients to seek alternative services in the health plan’s referenced network. “Such procedures are carried out in cases that involve risks to the maintenance of life.”

For Débora Diniz, law professor at UnB (University of Brasília) and researcher in the area of ​​reproductive rights, the establishment could not refuse to carry out this type of procedure, since it operates within the constitutional framework that understands family planning as a guarantee of the right to health. “The fact that the hospital does not do it for men and women does not change in any way the violation of the right to health, the violation of access to health services”, she argues.

According to Sociedade Beneficente São Camilo, all 30 hospitals maintained by the institution follow the same guideline and do not offer any contraceptive procedures, such as tubal ligation and vasectomy, except in cases of health risk.

Among the establishments managed by the philanthropic entity, however, there are units that receive transfers of public resources – which can be characterized as a “gap” for lawyer Juliana Hasse, president of the Medical Law and Health Commission of the OAB-SP, since the procedures They are offered free of charge by the SUS (Unified Health System).

“Access to contraceptive methods is an integral part of the right to health, which is guaranteed by the federal constitution. Therefore [hospital] having this side that involves public resources, there may be some conflict. And then there may even have to be a jurisprudential position, even a position by the judiciary itself to resolve this conflict”, says Hasse, who says he is unaware of cases of judicialization for this reason.

When contacted, Cremesp (Regional Council of Medicine of the State of São Paulo) said that private hospitals are not obliged to offer contraceptive methods, such as the IUD, and that each institution has its own protocol on the procedure. “Furthermore, this is a procedure that can be carried out in a doctor’s office, so not all health plans cover its insertion and hospitalization in hospitals”, says a note from the entity.

Victoria Damasceno, from São Paulo, collaborated