Tennessee woman says hospital canceled her sterilization surgery while admitted to hospital

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - A Tennessee woman says Ascension St. Thomas Midtown canceled her scheduled sterilization surgery Friday morning hours after she had been admitted and an IV had been placed.

The woman said she had been seeking a salpingectomy — a surgery that removes the fallopian tubes — after years of trying other birth control options.

“Since I was young, I’ve never wanted kids. And I’ve wanted to pursue sterilization since I learned that that was something that a person could do,” she said. “I’ve tried a lot of different options for birth control. None of them have worked for me.”

Decision came from ethics committee, the woman says

The woman said she was admitted, spoke with the surgical team, and had an IV placed before waiting approximately three hours with no update. She said a group of nurses then informed her the procedure would not proceed.

“The hospital wasn’t going to allow them to go through with it, because they had concerns about the implications of sterilizing a woman so young,” she said.

She said she was told the decision came from the hospital’s Catholic Ethics Oversight Committee and that the committee cited a “duty to protect her sacred fertility.”

The woman told WSMV her reasons for pursuing sterilization included a history of assault, previous issues with other forms of birth control, and concerns about living in a state without abortion access.

“I went on birth control at a young age after being assaulted,” she said. “That’s another big reason I wanted to pursue sterilization. Because we live in a state that, you know, you can’t get an abortion.”

She said her primary concern was the timing of the cancellation — that the decision came only after she was already hours into the pre-surgical process.

She says after pre-paying for the surgery, she now is waiting on a refund following the cancellation.

“The main reason I wanted to, like, talk about it was because I don’t want anyone else to have to go through that,” she said.

The cancellation comes after the passage of House Bill 1044, also known as the Medical Ethics Defense Act, which took effect at the end of April last year. The law protects doctors from liability or lawsuits when they decline to perform procedures that conflict with their religious or moral beliefs.

WSMV4 reached out to Ascension St. Thomas for more information on the Catholic Ethics Oversight Committee and how those decisions are made. The hospital said it is working on a response.