Unusual Off-Cycle Regents Meeting - Part 2 (Columnist's Maybe Prediction)

As we previously noted, there will be an unusual off-cycle session of the Regents this coming week and a key issue is the relation between UC Health and the Catholic hospital chain Dignity Health.* Based on religious considerations, Dignity Health won't perform certain procedures such as abortion.

LA Times columnist Michael Hiltzik is predicting that the Regents will endorse continuation of the relationship:

For more than two years, the University of California has grappled with how to manage proposed partnerships between UC medical systems and hospitals that impose restrictions on healthcare on religious grounds. That process is about to come to an end. On Wednesday, the UC Board of Regents will vote on a policy governing those arrangements. If the vote goes as expected, it will be a clear win for religious restrictions, especially those imposed by the Catholic Church at hospitals under its control...

It isn’t entirely clear that the 24-member Board of Regents will accept Drake’s recommendation, but it may be a safe bet. Few regents have taken an explicit stand for or against affiliations with restrictive institutions. Most don’t seem to have devoted much attention to the issue at all, even though it has been percolating since early 2019. One who has expressed a strong view in opposition to affiliations that subject UC staff members to religious limitations on care is board Chair John A. Pérez..

Full column at https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-06-18/uc-regents-catholic-healthcare-restrictions

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2021/06/unusual-off-cycle-regents-meeting.html.