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Jane VanDeBogart Action Fund

With a generous bequest from the estate of a long-time hospital merger activist, MergerWatch has created the Jane VanDeBogart Action Fund. This fund will enable us to better assist community-based activists. 

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Need Help in Your Community?

  1. Has your local hospital announced a merger or affiliation with a religiously-affiliated hospital that uses doctrine to restrict patients’ access to health services?
  2. Has a pharmacist refused to fill your prescription because of personal objections to contraception?
  3. Have you been denied medical care or information by a physician who cited religious or moral objections?

If you’ve been affected by religious restrictions when you tried to obtain health care, please let us know.
We may be able to help. 

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Or call us at 212.870.2010

MergerWatch respects the privacy of every individual. None of the personal information you give us will be given to any other organization or individual without your consent.

Hospital Mergers: Current Cases

Seattle, WA

Swedish Medical Center has announced its plans to affiliate with Providence Health & Services, a large Catholic health system in the Northwest, and has agreed to ban elective abortion services as a condition of this partnership. In an attempt to preserve these services, Swedish also announced plans to fund a new Planned Parenthood clinic in Seattle. Local women's health advocates have reacted strongly to this solution because it does not improve access to abortion services for rural women and does not address situations that warrant hospitalization. End of life advocates are also concerned about the implications of this affiliation in hospice facilities currently affiliated with Swedish. We are actively engaged with local advocates in seeking answers to these issues from the hospital leadership of Swedish.

Skagit County, WA

United General Hospital, a public hospital governed by a 5-member commission and located in a rural area north of Seattle, has decided to explore the possibility of a formal “alliance” with PeaceHealth, another Catholic health care system that operates clinics and hospitals across the Northwest. A series of public meetings to explain the proposal are underway, giving county residents an opportunity to express their concerns about a public entity following religious rules and how those rules could affect reproductive health care and end of life care.

Waterbury, CT

A proposal in Waterbury, CT would bring together secular Waterbury Hospital and Catholic Saint Mary's Hospital under a new joint venture with a Texas-based for-profit company, LHP Hospital Group. Even though Saint Mary's would own only 10% of the joint venture, the two secular partners have agreed to have Catholic health restrictions apply. Waterbury Hospital's CEO has publicly pledged that "there is a commitment to provide the continuation of all health care services now available in Greater Waterbury." MergerWatch joins local women's health advocates in monitoring this promise.


For help in opposing a merger in your community, contact us.