Catholic Church Bans All Gender-Affirming Care At Its Vast Hospital Network
The vote formalizes what many church-run facilities already practiced and deepens the divide between Catholic leadership and medical consensus.
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The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops voted this week to formally ban gender-affirming care in the country’s network of Catholic hospitals, sharpening a long-running divide within American Catholicism over transgender rights and medical care.
The vote, held in a hotel ballroom in Baltimore, updates the church’s ethical and religious directives for health care institutions and makes official what has already been standard practice in many Catholic facilities. Catholic health systems treat more than one in seven patients nationwide and are, in some communities, the only available medical provider.
Under the new directive, these hospitals cannot offer any form of gender-affirming care. That includes hormone therapy, surgeries, and related mental health treatments for patients of any age. Major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association and the World Health Organization, regard these treatments as evidence-based and medically necessary.
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During public debate, Bishop Robert Barron of the Winona-Rochester diocese in Minnesota said, “With regard to the gender ideology, I think it’s very important the church makes a strong statement here.”
The directives draw on earlier guidance from the Vatican and a 2023 doctrinal note titled Moral Limits to the Technological Manipulation of the Human Body. That document states that “Catholic health care services must not perform interventions, whether 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.”
The Catholic Health Association expressed support for the revisions while stressing that transgender patients will not be turned away. “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,” the group said.
Many transgender Catholics and affirming faith leaders say the vote disregards both medical consensus and the lived reality of trans people who rely on church-run health care. “Catholic teaching upholds the invaluable dignity of every human life, and for many trans people, gender-affirming care is what makes life liveable,” Michael Sennett, a trans man active in his Massachusetts parish, told AP.
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New Ways Ministry’s executive director, Francis DeBernardo, said that for many transgender Catholics he knows, “the transition process was not just a biological necessity, but a spiritual imperative. That if they were going to be living as authentic people in the way that they believe God made them, then transition becomes a necessary thing.”
Leaders from several progressive denominations released a joint statement in response. “Our scriptures vary, but they share a common conviction. As we make justice our aim we must give voice to those who are silenced,” they said. The statement continued, “Transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people are vulnerable today. Our faiths, our theologies, and our practices of prophetic witness call on us to say with one voice to transgender people among us: ‘You are holy. You are sacred. We love you. We support you, and we will protect you.’”
The coalition of religious leaders added, “During a time when our country is placing their lives under increasingly serious threat, there is a disgraceful misconception that all people of faith do not affirm the full spectrum of gender – a great many of us do.”
