The ACLU is suing the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and a Catholic hospital in Michigan, on behalf of a woman who says she was forced to endure a painful miscarriage at a Catholic hospital was never presented with the option to terminate her pregnancy. The details of her miscarriage go from sad to horrifying when you take into account the care she received:

The case involves Tamesha Means, who was rushed to Mercy Health Partners in Muskegon in December 2010 when her water broke after 18 weeks of pregnancy. The hospital sent her home twice, even though she was in “excruciating pain;” there was virtually no chance that her pregnancy could survive, and continuing the pregnancy posed a significant risk to the mother’s health, she alleged in the lawsuit.

But because of its Catholic affiliation and directives, the hospital told Means that there was nothing it could do, and it did not tell her that abortion was an option, she alleged in the lawsuit. When Means returned to the hospital a third time in extreme distress and with an infection, the hospital still tried to send her home, but Means began to deliver while staff prepared her discharge paperwork.

This is enraging but it comes to no surprise to anyone who's been paying attention to this issue—in fact, it's consistent with the Catholic bishops' directives, which ban abortion under any circumstances, even when a woman's life is in danger. I'd love to have a Catholic Bishop explain to me why pregnant women should be left to suffer through painful miscarriages on their own, or risk infection, or die for the sake of a nonviable fetus. Does it all circle back to sluts and Eve? Or because letting women die is God's Plan? Truly, I'd like to know. We have the technology to plant a pig heart in my uncle—Catholic hospitals aren't condemning aortic valve replacements, as far as I know—but when it comes to medical procedures and women, prayer trumps science. That doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't make any fucking sense.

If you need a refresher on how the fight between Catholic hospitals and their patients is playing out in Washington State, go re-read this piece.