The Catholic Diocese of Little Rock put out a news release today saying that Bishop Anthony B. Taylor met with Mercy Health Ministry’s board chairman and another member of the board to discuss the Vatican’s disapproval of the sale of St. Joseph’s Mercy Medical Center to Capella Healthcare of Henderson, Tenn., and was told the matter would be taken up by Mercy’s board at its next meeting Dec. 13-14.

To appease the church, Capella agreed last summer to not provide abortion or sterilization services at the Hot Springs hospital for five years, but the pope and Bishop Taylor remain dissatisfied. Does that mean the Vatican will object to an “affiliation” of St. Vincent Health with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences even if only UAMS continues to treat women like fully-developed human beings in their health care decisions?

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