Bishops Vote To Prohibit Trans Surgeries In Catholic Hospitals

U.S. Catholic bishops voted to prohibit transgender surgeries and the use of cross-sex hormones in Catholic hospitals, in a show of solidarity with Catholic physicians and medical groups who have advocated for an end to the procedures for more than a decade.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) met Nov. 11-13 in Baltimore, Maryland, for their biannual plenary assembly, in which bishops, individuals, and organizations determine and discuss church policy. On Nov. 12, bishops overwhelmingly voted to approve updates to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (ERDs), including the prohibition of transgender surgical and hormonal manipulation.

The vote is significant, as more than one in seven patients are served in Catholic hospitals daily. Catholic health facilities serve patients in all 50 states, overseeing more than 600 hospitals and 1600 other health care facilities.

The Catholic Medical Association (CMA) has raised concerns over the dangers of transgender interventions for at least 20 years, with significantly increased attention over the past decade, said Dr. Tim Millea, CMA health care policy chairman.

In a 2016 publication, the CMA highlighted research conducted by Dr. Michelle Cretella, a CMA member and president of the American College of Pediatrics, who had specialized in adolescent mental and sexual health for years and witnessed the damage done by physicians experimenting on gender-confused youth. At the time, Cretella was supporting parent groups fighting for female- or male-only bathrooms and locker rooms in schools.

“The explosion of young people seeking these interventions led to our recognition that this had become a true public health concern and needed to be addressed more prominently and with greater urgency,” Millea said.

USCCB Fails to Address Issue Directly until 2023

It would still take years for Catholic bishops to take a public stance.

The USCCB did not address the issue directly until 2023, when it updated decades-old guidelines for professional-patient relationships in Catholic health care facilities. Altering bodies for “gender dysphoria” or “gender incongruence” is “not morally justified,” the revised directives stated, directing Catholic health care providers to avoid any interventions, surgical or chemical, “that aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex or take part in the development of such procedures.”

In a presentation preceding last week’s vote, Auxiliary Bishop James Massa of Brooklyn, New York, who is chairman of the USCCB Committee on Doctrine, said the original 2023 document “incorporated insights” from Catholic physicians, bioethicists, and health care organizations, and that the topic received intense “scrutiny by multiple experts.”

The USCCB’s increased attention over the past few years parallels the magnitude of the damage being done, especially to minors, Millea said.

Scandal

Catholic teaching on gender is clear, affirming the biological reality that humans are created male and female, but many Catholic hospitals have blatantly ignored church teaching for years, performing transgender surgeries and sterilization and prescribing cross-sex hormones to minors.

In 2024, the watchdog group Do No Harm published findings collected from health care insurance claims between 2019-2023, linking 150 Catholic-affiliated hospitals with the prescribing of puberty blockers or gender-transition surgeries.

At the time of reporting on the scandal, EWTN News received no clear response as to what actions would be taken against Catholic institutions violating USCCB guidance.

Long-Awaited Recognition

The CMA continues to be a driving and outspoken force for the protection of minors from transgender interventions.

In 2024, multiple Catholic medical and health policy organizations and physicians, to include the CMA, signed the Doctors Protecting Children Declaration, calling for an end to transgender procedures and prescribing of cross-sex hormones. The CMA has also committed to supporting legal justice for people harmed by transgender surgeries and has worked alongside the American College of Pediatricians to educate and inform. The medical group notably hosted a panel of detransitioned young adults at its annual education conference last year, giving a voice to those directly injured through transgender “care.”

Weighing the Cost

“The updated ERDs are clear in the bishops’ expectation that Catholic hospitals must adhere to the directives or risk losing their Catholic identity and affiliation,” Millea said.

With transition “medicine” bringing in millions of dollars annually, hospitals and health systems will have to weigh that cost.

Physician influence in hospitals and health systems has eroded over time and decisions in these facilities are increasingly made based on financial impact and profit over care, Millea said.

“A truly Catholic hospital will always prioritize the care for the patient and their welfare over the economic bottom line,” he said.

Consistent with Catholic Practice

The Catholic Health Association of the United States applauded the newly approved guidance as a reaffirmation of Catholic teaching “on the dignity of all persons,” calling the new directives “consistent with Catholic health care practice.”

“In a time of new medical discoveries … what is new can either be an opportunity for genuine advancement in human culture, or it can lead to policies and actions that are contrary to the true dignity and vocation of the human person,” the updated ERDs reads. Transgender medicine, with its increasingly evident and long-lasting negative, and oftentimes irreversible, effects contradicts that dignity.

Ashley Bateman is a policy writer for The Heartland Institute and blogger for Ascension Press. Her work has been featured in The Washington Times, The Daily Caller, The New York Post, The American Thinker and numerous other publications. She previously worked as an adjunct scholar for The Lexington Institute and as editor, writer and photographer for The Warner Weekly, a publication for the American military community in Bamberg, Germany. Ashley is a board member at a Catholic homeschool cooperative in Virginia. She homeschools her four incredible children along with her brilliant engineer/scientist husband.