US bishops ban gender-affirming care at Catholic hospitals

A Baltimore Pride participant carries a poster in backing of gender-affirming physical condition care Washington Blade photo by Michael Key The U S Conference of Catholic Bishops this week adopted a directive that bans Catholic hospitals from offering gender-affirming care to their patients Since creation is prior to us and must be received as a gift we have a duty to protect our humanity which means first of all accepting it and respecting it as it was created reads the directive the USCCB adopted during their meeting that is taking place this week in Baltimore The Washington Blade obtained a copy of it on Thursday In order to respect the nature of the human person as a unity of body and soul Catholic strength care services must not provide or permit curative interventions whether surgical hormonal or genetic that aim not to restore but rather to alter the fundamental order of the human body in its form or function reads the directive This includes for example a few forms of genetic engineering whose purpose is not physiological healing as well as interventions that aim to transform sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex or to nullify sexual characteristics of a human body In accord with the mission of Catholic medical care which includes serving those who are vulnerable Catholic physical condition care services and providers must employ all appropriate support to mitigate the suffering of those who experience gender incongruence or gender dysphoria and to provide for the full range of their soundness care requirements employing only those means that respect the fundamental order of the human body it adds The Vatican s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in condemned gender-affirming surgeries and gender theory The USCCB directive comes against the backdrop of the Trump-Vance administration s continued attacks against the trans society The U S Supreme Court in June upheld a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming curative interventions for minors Media reports earlier this month indicated the Trump-Vance administration will seek to prohibit Medicaid reimbursement for medicinal care to trans minors and ban reimbursement through the Children s Vitality Insurance Activity for patients under NPR also broadcasted the White House is considering blocking all Medicaid and Medicare funding for hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to minors The directives adopted by the USCCB will harm not benefit transgender persons commented Francis DeBernardo executive director of New Procedures Ministry a Maryland-based LGBTQ Catholic organization in a announcement In a church called to synodal listening and dialogue it is embarrassing even shameful that the bishops failed to consult transgender people who have located that gender-affirming therapeutic care has enhanced their lives and their relationship with God The post US bishops ban gender-affirming care at Catholic hospitals appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta