"The Conscience Clause"

The Constitution of the United States guarantees a woman’s right to choose if or when to become a mother. But lawmakers at both the federal and state level continue to enact laws designed to make that choice more and more difficult and ultimately impossible.

In the 30 years since Roe v. Wade, states like Indiana have created numerous laws limiting women’s access to reproductive health services and medicines. In many cases, women are now finding themselves denied so many choices they are often left with none.

After the birth of their third daughter, Annie and Dan decided they didn’t want to have more children. Annie chose to have a tubal ligation, a sterilization procedure commonly known as a woman having her “tubes tied.”

What the couple didn’t know when they made that decision was that the “woman’s hospital” where Annie had received all of her medical care for more than 10 years had recently been acquired in a corporate merger and was now part of one of the country’s largest Catholic health care networks.