Christian norms shape healthcare delivery, ethics, and accessibility. We see this in many areas, especially in palliative and end-of-life care, reproductive and sexual health, and public health policies. Nearly 20% of hospital beds in the US are in religious hospitals, and 4 of the largest hospital systems were Catholic (Freedman, 2024). Many of these hospitals follow Ethical and Religious Directives (ERDs), even those institutions that have been sold to non-Catholic entities as a condition of sale. ERDs guide health care delivery from the perspectives of the Catholic Church's theological and moral teaching (Catholic Health Association of the United States, n.d.).
In later sections of this guide, you'll find specific scenarios that delve into the effect of Christian norms on healthcare.
Chakraborty et al. (2017) conducted a systematic review that looked at patients and healthcare providers from five major world religions on their views of end-of-life concerns, including their thoughts on advanced directives, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, autopsy practices and more.
Steinberg (2015) explores autonomy and Jewish medical ethics surrounding the case of patient who is estimated to die within 12 months, but has the potential to undergo a treatment that will either extend their life, or end it immediately.
The General Social Survey looked at people's beliefs from 1972 to 2018. Part of that survey included six questions that looked at whether, in certain situations, abortion was reasonable, including health-and-wellbeing-based and lifestyle-based abortions. To analyze the results, Bohrer (2021) looked at women from different Christian denominations to see how they viewed abortion. It was found that the views of women tend to not fully align with the major religious' entities mandates regarding health-and-wellbeing-based reasons for abortions versus lifestyle-based reasons for abortion.
Todd et al. (2020) explored how there is a connection between support for Christian hegemony, unawareness of Christian privilege, and opposition to sexual and gender minority rights.
While religious guidelines are often cited as a basis for reproductive health policy changes, another study found that women tend to have a more complex view of the ACA contraceptive mandate (Patton et al., 2015). Many women in the United States consider themselves to be religious and many have positive views on contraception and abortion; which is a different picture than is painted by common stereotypes.
The Satanic Temple (TST), a "nontheistic religious group" (Wimberley, 2023), has been actively working to challenge state's abortion laws, using similar arguments as the "religious right," proposing that their members are being denied religious freedom when they are blocked access to abortion care. Wimberley (2023) explores some of TST's Religious Reproductive Rights (RRR) initiatives.
TST also argued that Oklahoma's HB1425, which requires all Oklahoma school boards to have a policy that would excuse students so they could attend a course in religious or moral instruction off-campus during school time, also applies to their followers (Aston & Hinton, 2024). They used ads on social media to promote the operation of their Hellion Academy of Independent Learning (HAIL) program.
