I have some childhood memories I would like to forget, including four nuns holding me down while a fifth one jabbed a needle in my butt.

They showed a remarkable lack of compassion for a terrified little girl, and as an adult, whenever I have had a choice of a Catholic versus a non-Catholic hospital, I have always seemed to choose the latter.

Now it looks like avoiding Catholic-affiliated hospitals just got a whole lot more difficult. I can’t imagine what the local hospital board thought it was doing in effectively limiting our medical care to procedures sanctioned by the Catholic hierarchy of this state. What were they thinking?

Thank heavens I am beyond reproductive age and don’t have to worry about the notorious Catholic strictures in that area, but of course hundreds of local women do have that concern.

But with my senior citizen membership card comes the concerns surrounding end-of-life care, and I have to tell you that this local PeaceHealth issue has put my hackles up. Apparently I will have to have a Plan B in place, and possibly even a Plan C.

Our state constitution makes it plain that religious entities cannot receive funds derived from state taxes, so why do we allow the metastasis of the Catholic influence in our health care?

I am glad that at least the ACLU and some of our legislators see that this threat must be stopped.

Rita M. O’Clair/San Juan Island