Unpacking the intersection of health care and religion

Phineas Pope:  Tracy Simmons is the executive director of Favs News, a digital journalism startup covering religion. She’s also a professor of journalism at Washington State University and joins me now.  Would you talk a bit about Favs News? What is it? What is religion reporting?

Tracy Simmons: Favs News is an online publication that I started, actually 13 years ago, which is kind of crazy to think about. And we cover religion and ethics in the Inland Northwest through news and commentary. We’ve kind of become a newswire, a religion newswire for this area, because our content is picked up in lots of different publications, so it’s really fun to see that grow over the years. 

We have 15 reporters and 40 columnists from all different faith perspectives and from all across the region writing for us. 

Pope:  And religion reporting, can you demystify that a little bit?

Simmons:  Religion reporting is, in my opinion, the best beat there is. Because we are writing about not just religion, especially not just Christian religions, but all religions, including atheists and agnosticism, and humanists. And we are trying to help people understand the belief systems of their neighbors.

I think it’s the best beat because it challenges you in a personal way that other beats don’t. And it really helps you learn how to have an open mind and hear, you know, the other side of things. I actually teach a religion reporting class right now and it’s my favorite. And helping students kind of understand that this is even a beat that people don’t even know exists.

Pope:  This week you looked at the contrast in how religion intersects with health care policy. Abortion, transgender care — those are two issues where religion and health care have a lot of overlap. A lot of states are also considering medical aid in dying laws. How are faith based health care providers affecting medical decisions?

Simmons:  We looked at how religion influences health care policy differently in neighboring states. Washington tends toward greater separation between religion and health care, while Idaho often allows more religious influence in medical decisions. Regarding Idaho’s House Bill 59, which is known as the Medical Ethics Defense Act, that one’s currently waiting for a final vote in the Idaho Senate right now.

And if it passes, this bill would allow health care professionals to refuse participation in non-emergency procedures that might violate their religious or their moral beliefs. So some supporters in the Senate frame it as protecting conscious rights, while opponents argue it confuses personal beliefs with professional responsibilities.

Faith based health care systems like Providence, for example — which is Washington’s largest provider and is Catholic based — they follow specific religious guidelines that can limit services. They follow what’s called the ethical and religious directives for Catholic health care services. This affects their policies on, like you said, abortion, end of life care, transgender care, etc.

For example, they evaluate abortion cases individually when a woman’s life is at risk, but their religious principles generally don’t permit the procedure.

Note: This transcript has been edited for clarity.