The LSU Student Health Center sits on Monday, March 20, 2023, on Infirmary Road in Baton Rouge, La. (Matthew Perschall for Louisiana Illuminator)
The former head of LSU’s Student Health Center is suing the university over its partnership with the Catholic hospital network Our Lady of the Lake (OLOL), which she says violates employees First Amendment rights and limits students’ health care options.
Julie Hupperich, the former director, alleges in a lawsuit filed this month with the 19th Judicial District in Baton Rouge that she was fired in May because she raised objections to the deal that allowed OLOL to take over operations of the Student Health Center in February 2023.
Hupperich alleges in her lawsuit she was harassed and terminated based on objections she raised that are protected under Louisiana’s whistleblower laws. She is seeking financial compensation for lost wages and benefits, among other damages. Read the full complaint below.
According to the lawsuit, Hupperich repeatedly raises concerns to LSU administrators about Student Health Center employees being required to adhere to the “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services and Catholic Social Teachings” to maintain their employment, which she claims violates the First Amendment’s prohibition against a state-sponsored religion. .
Meetings at the health center began with forced prayer, Hupperich alleges. She also said she was warned to stop complaining about the OLOL partnership before she was terminated, court records say.
Adhering to those policies limits LSU Student Health Center employees’ ability to “provide complete birth control, gynecological, suicide prevention, mental health and sexual transition counseling and services,” the lawsuit alleges.
Providers are only allowed to prescribe birth control to students if cramps or acne is the reason, Hupperich alleges, and mental health providers must limit their counseling on suicide to advising that suicide is a “mortal sin,” she claims in the lawsuit.
The pledge also required providers to agree that life begins at conception and that “abortion is never permitted,” the lawsuit alleges.
Our Lady of the Lake spokeswoman Alexandra Stubbs declined to answer specific questions about the allegations in the suit but defended the partnership in a statement. The hospital system is not a party to the lawsuit.
“Our commitment to providing comprehensive health care remains steadfast, and we have always operated within the legal boundaries governing our activities,” Stubbs said. “We are dedicated to supporting LSU and ensuring that students receive the highest standard of care.”
The Illuminator reached out to LSU spokesman Todd Woodward for comment midday Wednesday, and he had not responded as of end of day.
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Hupperich also alleges the partnership is diverting student fees to OLOL and improperly charged students a $5 co-pay, even when the health centers’ services are completely covered by their own insurance. Hupperich said she was told by LSU Vice President of Finance and Administration Kimberly Lewis that OLOL was interested in “recouping” their multimillion dollar donation to the university through running the center according to court records.
Non-medical staff were able to access student medical and mental health records when Hupperich led the center, her lawsuit says, which she considers a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a federal privacy law that protects patients health information.
Baton Rouge attorney Jill Craft is representing Hupperich in the lawsuit.
“When [Hupperich] continued to object to and refuse to participate in … the misuse of student health fees for religious purposes, HIPAA violations and … and/or mental health treatment without adequate consent, forced prayer before meetings of LSU employees, required adherence to religious dogma as a condition of employment, … she was targeted and fed false information,” Craft wrote in the lawsuit.
At the time the partnership was approved, Lewis told the LSU Board of Supervisors that university-employed health care providers will continue to directly provide gynecological and reproductive healthcare, rather than turning those responsibilities over to OLOL.
“Because of the Lake’s relationship as a Catholic organization, we know that there are some differences, and we don’t want our students to not have access to all the services they currently have,” Lewis told the board in 2023.
That separation is also outlined in the cooperative agreement between the university and OLOL.
But Hupperich says even LSU employees who work at the health center are required to be credentialed by OLOL, which she said in her lawsuit means “pledging allegiance” to Catholic doctrine.
Hupperich is not the only one raising red flags about this separation not being honored.
Alyson Neel, an instructor at LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication whose research focuses on the availability of emergency contraception, said that when she and her students approached the Student Health Center about increasing access, she was shut down because of the partnership.
“The response was, ‘Well, they could order it through us, but we do not carry it for students who are not sexual assault survivors,’” Neel said. “They made it clear that was because of the OLOL partnership.”
“LSU has a large, diverse student population that has diverse sexual and reproductive health needs, and it’s critical that whoever the provider is of those services on LSU campus is able to meet those diverse needs,” Neel added.
Hupperich’s lawsuit lands in a state considered to have one of the strictest abortion bans in the country. It went into effect in June 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, and it only allows the procedure when the life of the mother is at risk, she faces serious health risks or the fetus is not viable.
Louisiana lawmakers and Gov. Jeff Landry also passed a first-of-its-kind law this year that classifies pills used to manage miscarriages and for common reproductive health procedures as controlled dangerous substances because they are also used for abortions.
This is a developing story.
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