ACLU urges Chicago City Council to deny $5.5M subsidy to Presence Health

The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois on Monday urged the City Council to deny a $5.5 million subsidy to Illinois' largest Catholic health system because of Presence Health's anti-abortion policy.

"At a time when reproductive health care is under attack, the city of Chicago should work to expand access to the full range of women's health care - not use taxpayer dollars to support an institution that imposes its religious beliefs to deny patients basic health care," the ACLU wrote in a letter addressed to all 50 Chicago aldermen.

The letter points to a recent ACLU report that the group claims "demonstrates that patients are denied medically-indicated care at Catholic institutions when religion takes precedence over medical standards of care."

"One patient included in this report was a Presence Health patient who was denied a tubal ligation at the time of a C-section when it is safest, and then, after being denied her tubal ligation, was told that she could not get contraception unless she was willing to lie about the reason," the letter states.

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