Last June, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved new directives for Catholic hospitals, declaring that in any affiliation, a Catholic facility must ensure that its administrators and employees will not 'manage, carry out, assist in carrying out, make its facilities available for, make referrals for, or benefit from the revenue generated by immoral procedures' - which typically include abortion, sterilization and all contraception except for natural family planning.

Officials with the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) have decided to drop a proposed plan to affiliate their public hospitals with a Catholic health care system after concerns were raised that such a relationship might cause patients to lose services.

Americans United in late April advised the University of California at San Francisco Board of Regents to pull out of, or alter, a proposed agreement that will subject several hospitals to religious dictates.