A Tennessee woman’s planned sterilization surgery was abruptly canceled hours after she had been admitted to Ascension St. Thomas Midtown, sparking outrage across social media and raising questions about patient autonomy in Catholic-affiliated hospitals.
The woman, who had sought a salpingectomy to remove her fallopian tubes, said she had struggled with other forms of birth control for years. She described the experience as emotionally taxing. “Since I was young, I’ve never wanted kids. And I’ve wanted to pursue sterilization since I learned that was something a person could do,” she said.
The surgery was scheduled, pre-approved by both the hospital and her insurance, and the patient had already been connected to an IV and met with her surgical team. But after waiting for several hours with no updates, she was informed by nursing staff that 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,” the patient said. She explained that the decision came from the hospital’s Catholic Ethics Oversight Committee, which cited a “duty to protect her sacred fertility.”
Her husband shared a detailed account on Reddit, describing the ordeal as humiliating and stressful. “Just imagine the feeling of fasting and not drinking water before a procedure, paying in full, missing work, waiting at a hospital for six hours, being connected to an IV, and being left with no information for three hours just to be told that an arbitrary religious decision is more important than your informed consent and your doctor’s medical recommendations,” he wrote.
The cancellation has also drawn criticism from Tennessee residents online. One commenter said, “No one with a uterus should go to Catholic hospitals. And that’s hard because they own so many.” Another noted the broader implications for reproductive care, stating, “That just goes to show how badly far right Christians want to have control over the population that they will shed their own foundational documents.”
The incident follows the 2025 passage of House Bill 1044, known as the Medical Ethics Defense Act, which protects doctors from liability when declining procedures that conflict with their religious or moral beliefs. Hospital representatives have said they are reviewing the matter and did not provide further details on the oversight committee’s decision-making process.
The patient had pre-paid for her procedure and is now awaiting a refund. Advocates and online commentators have expressed hope that she will be able to access the healthcare she sought, even if it means traveling to another facility.
The episode highlights ongoing tensions among patient autonomy, religiously affiliated hospitals, and state law in Tennessee, raising questions about when and how ethics committees should intervene in elective medical care.
