Reply to Can someone tell me what "not providing gender affirming care" at Catholic hospitals means?

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Reply to "Can someone tell me what "not providing gender affirming care" at Catholic hospitals means?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If being misgendered would be troubling to you or your child, I would familiarize yourself with the route to a different hospital.

Presumably in a true life-or-death, minutes count sort of emergency, misgendering or missed doses of the pill would not be a concern. [/quote]

Yes.  This should be your last concern if there is a true emergency.  Otherwise go to the hospital you prefer.

I find it troubling to force religious people to accommodate beliefs they find untrue, so I guess we are even.[/quote]
A church congregation should not be forced to no. But a hospital providing health care to the public is not the same thing. Hospitals can’t pick and choose what service they provide based on their interpretation of  a book written by men translated many many times into many many languages. 
Signed, a Christian [/quote]

No hospital is required to provide elective surgery or medication. This is where the actual discussion should be focused: is is elective or not?

Also, mocking the Bible won't get you far with Catholics as they are not bible literalists and are the least likely to even know a verse. Read the actual source of the theology so you can understand it and perhaps effectively argue against it intelligently. 
https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2024/04/08/240408c.html

If you don't bother reading it, you may be surprised that their teaching on this is not absolutely against all forms of what can be included in gender affirming care and actually seems pretty narrowly drafted to address elective procedures (which no hospital is requried to provide):

"This is not to exclude the possibility that a person with genital abnormalities that are already evident at birth or that develop later may choose to receive the assistance of healthcare professionals to resolve these abnormalities. However, in this case, such a medical procedure would not constitute a sex change in the sense intended here."
https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2024/04/08/240408c.html

Presently some Catholic Hospitals have Gender Affirming Care Clinics. As for the US Bishops' recent ethical guidelines, they also have said that each Bishop has the autonomy to decide whether or not to make it "law" in their diocese. And many are making room for the argument that these procedures are not elective for trans people to live a fully dignified life.

Also, at any Catholic hospital, whether they have a clinic or not, it absolutely does not mean trans people should not be loved and accepted with human dignity, nor does it mean they will not be care for and treated in Catholic hospitals.

"Catholic providers will continue to welcome those who seek medical care from us and identify as transgender. We will continue to treat these individuals with dignity and respect, which is consistent with Catholic social teaching and our moral obligation to serve everyone, particularly those who are marginalized."
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/12/g-s1-97651/gender-affirming-care-ban-catholic-hospitals

The guidelines seem narrowly focused on addressing nonmedically necessary procedures on individuals who physically, genetically are one gender and seek medical measures to try to elminate the essence of that gender and to look like another gender physically. The dioceses that make this guidance law would not prevent you from taking your medications that were prescribed elsewhere while you are in the hospital for some other reason (unless of course there was an intervening medical problem related to that), but they won't prescribe your refill andthey won't do the elective surgery. It should be noted that there is similar guidance on many forms of purely elective surgery, like some types of non-medically necessary plastic surgery. In spite of the ethical guidance, some Catholic hospitals still do these surgeries as well.

The crux of debate should be focused on whether some forms of gender affirming care are not just elective surgery, but are medically necessary to treat a condition or address significant physical or psychological harm. Medical doctors will have a varieity of opinions about this in many cases, and those in some (but not all) Catholic hospitals will be harder to convince and will more likely classify it as elective. But if it is medically necessary, the ethical debate ends.[/quote]

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