Monica Harrington

October 23, 2015

In recent letters, some people have tried to claim that I’m somehow hiding something nefarious.

The truth is that I’ve always been very open about my ongoing support for the Reproductive Privacy Act and Death with Dignity Acts, which San Juan County voters supported overwhelmingly and which are Washington State Law, much to some people’s chagrin.

I’ve also been very forthcoming about my concern that we need more effective oversight and control of our public tax dollars.  As an entrepreneur and businesswoman, I find the lack of effective financial oversight troubling; I believe the failure of two levies for EMS reflect broader concerns on these issues.  I also think the upward cost spiral at PIMC, which hits working islanders especially hard, needs to be addressed.

I’m proud of my involvement as a patient rights advocate, and my past work for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, two technology startups, Microsoft, Code for America, and NetHope.  All of these and a link to my website CatholicWatch are available on my professional resume which has always been publicly available on Linked-In.   (So too are my professional references, which is one reason I encourage people to go to that site.)

The 50-year exclusive contract with PeaceHealth here on San Juan Island is what spurred me to become involved in these issues, start a website, and speak out in national and regional media including ProPublica, NPR, Mother Jones, the Seattle Business News, Kaiser Health News, the Seattle Times, the San Juan Journal, and the San Juan Islander.

Part of the reason I speak out is that too often, physicians can’t.  And while we can address some things here, solutions to some of these issues are going to need to be implemented at state and national levels, with the involvement and support of physicians.  I’ve been working alongside other advocates (including from Compassion & Choices and Planned Parenthood Votes NW) and with physicians around the country to help make that happen.  It’s part of the reason I was invited to speak at an international Family Planning Conference, which was held recently at the University of Washington, and which was sponsored by the UW Law School, the UW Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, the UW School of Global Health, and the UW School of Nursing.

Meanwhile, I applaud the courage of doctors who are speaking out, including a PeaceHealth physician from Florence, OR who recently talked about the impact of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care in this story which appeared in The Nation: https://www.thenation.com/article/at-catholic-hospitals-a-right-to-life-but-not-a-right-to-death/

If anyone has any questions, I’m happy to post the question and answer on my website.

Sincerely,

Monica Harrington
www.monicaharrington.com