UC Health is a crucial public resource. It’s the 4th largest health care provider in our state and it trains more than half our medical students. UC has historically been a leader in advancing reproductive and LGBTQ-inclusive care. And, as a public institution, UC must be free from religious influence on the medical services it provides.
But there’s a problem. UC Health leadership continues to defend – and seeks to expand – contracts that place UC providers in non-UC facilities that have harmful, non-medical restrictions on care, such as the Catholic Ethical and Religious Directives, which call basic reproductive health services “intrinsically evil.” Under these contracts, UC providers are required to deny patients abortion care, gender-affirming care, contraception, and other essential care.
UC patients shouldn’t have to worry about whether they are receiving quality care or have to make a difficult decision to find another facility to get the essential medical treatment they need. And especially when we’re seeing an alarming rise in the number of states introducing legislation to bar access to reproductive and LGBTQ-inclusive care, we must stand up for California values.
On June 23, 2021, the UC Board of Regents is holding a special meeting to decide the future of their discriminatory contracts. Add your comment now to tell the University of California Regents to end these contracts—because discriminating against patients and denying appropriate health care is not a California value.
Tell President Drake and the Regents: protect UC patient care.
