Some people in Humboldt, Sask., are demanding their local hospital be removed from Catholic control.

A controversy about tubal ligations at St. Elizabeth's has divided people in this city about 100 kilometres east of Saskatoon, becoming the hot topic in the town over the past months.

St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Humboldt, Sask., is owned by the Saskatchewan Catholic Health Corporation.
(CBC)

The majority of a placard-waving crowd of about 1,700 people that packed into the city's hockey arena Wednesday night indicated they want changes at the hospital.

The hospital banned the sterilization procedure last summer, saying it was contrary to Catholic health ethics.

Following complaints, the hospital later relaxed the policy.

Construction on a new St. Elizabeth's Hospital is scheduled to begin later this year. Humboldt city council passed a resolution in January calling on to Catholic authorities and Saskatchewan Health to make the new hospital a publicly run facility.

At the meeting in Humboldt Wednesday, more than 1,000 people signed a petition calling for the health region to take over.

For two hours, speaker after speaker said the time has come to take the church out of the hospital's decision-making structure.

"The Catholic concept of not allowing contraception or birth control is not acceptable to the majority of people today," said Anita Renneberg, a Catholic who is a clinic staffer.

Doctor tendered resignation over issue

Dr. Carrie Levick, who tendered her resignation over the ban, said although the ban has been lifted, the new policy still takes too much control away from women making personal medical decisions.

"We now have a government-endorsed special policy that singles out this particular surgery," Levick said. "It has a special consent form that no other surgery in our hospital has."

The tubal ligation controversy has heightened concerns in recent months about keeping doctors in the small city.

Levick's resignation takes effect on March 21, but she said she's hoping to find a reason to stay.

A tubal ligation is a procedure in which a woman's Fallopian tubes are usually burned, clipped, cut or tied, preventing pregnancy.