Physicians’ Offices

Physicians’ offices can be restricted by religious doctrine if the offices are located in medical office buildings owned by religiously-sponsored hospitals. Often the office lease will specify that the physicians may not provide medical information or services that conflict with religious doctrine.

Such has been the case, for example, in northern California, where obstetricians/gynecologists at the Summit OB/GYN practice have been limited by the doctrine of St. Anthony’s Hospital, which owns the medical office building in which the practice is located. The practice is now moving into another building, and plans to begin offering sterilization services once free of the religious restrictions.

Physicians can also become governed by religious restrictions if they sell their medical practice to a religiously-sponsored hospital, as has been a frequent occurrence in recent years. In Indiana, a husband-and-wife team of physicians was fired from their own medical practice after they sold it to a local Catholic hospital and then were discovered to be prescribing birth control to their patients.