An agreement between the Commonwealth Government and Corporation of the Little Company of Mary was reached on 22 October 1971 to construct and operate a public hospital providing up to 300 beds to service the Inner North and Belconnen districts in Canberra, to be located on a site in the new suburb of Bruce.

[7] Calvary Hospital was among the earliest institutions in Australia to undertake sentinel lymph node biopsy procedures under the guidance of prominent local breast cancer surgeon John Buckingham.

[9] During 2019, complaints to the ACT Human Rights Commission alleged the hospital was limiting the information and advice it provided to women on both abortion as well as options for contraception.

[10] During 2022, a Legislative Assembly committee launched an inquiry into abortion and reproductive rights in Canberra, partially in response to outrage surrounding the repeal of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court of the United States.

[11] The committee handed down its report in April 2023, which identified that Calvary Hospital's "religious ethos" was a barrier to accessing certain treatments and procedures that should be considered basic human rights.

[13] Following the release of the inquiry's recommendations, in May 2023 the ACT Government announced that it planned to take over the hospital land and assets and to redevelop the site as part of a $1 billion healthcare campus for Canberra's northern districts.

[17][18][19] On 11 May 2023, the Health Infrastructure Enabling Bill 2023 was introduced to the ACT Legislative Assembly, proposing to remove the public hospital land from the existing Crown lease and terminate the Calvary Network Agreement "on just terms", with provision for compensation.

Federal Opposition leader Peter Dutton also called on the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, to intervene by overriding the ACT Government to stop the takeover.

Due to moral concerns of the Catholic Church, the agreement under which the hospital operated allowed that certain procedures including IVF and induced abortions not be performed at Calvary.