Hospitals in Catholic health network promote sex-change surgeries

Hospitals affiliated with the largest Catholic healthcare network in the United States are promoting — and in some cases performing — gender-change surgeries and puberty interventions for minors in defiance of church teachings, according to a recent report. 

The Lepanto Institute, an organization that informs the public about Catholic groups acting in opposition to religious teachings, released a report Sunday, claiming CommonSpirit Health is “performing transgender surgeries, providing hormone-based transgender therapies, providing puberty blockers to children under the auspices of so-called ‘gender-affirming care.'”

“The largest Catholic health system in the United States, CommonSpirit Health, is acting directly against Catholic moral teaching in direct defiance of its Catholic identity,” the executive summary states.

The Christian Post reached out to CommonSpirit Health for comment on the Lepanto Institute report. A response is pending.  

Formed in 2019 from the merger of Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives, the CommonSpirit Health system has over 1,000 care sites and 140 hospitals in 21 states.

In the 64-page report, the Lepanto Institute listed multiple hospitals and medical centers it identified as providing “transgender healthcare services” — including referrals for hormone interventions and puberty-blocking drugs — conducting abortions, dispensing contraception and “performing sterilizations.” 

Some facilities named in the report, including the Mark Twain Medical Center in San Andreas and the Community Hospital of San Bernardino, are not Catholic. As members of CommonSpirit, however, the facilities still fall under the sponsorship of the Catholic Health Care Federation, which has ties to the Vatican. 

“However, in addition to these non-Catholic facilities, a similar number of CommonSpirit facilities that are Catholic are engaged in the same wicked coverage of benefits for self-claiming transgender individuals,” the report contends.

Fourteen CommonSpirit Catholic facilities listed in the Human Rights Campaign’s “Healthcare Equality Index” provide employee healthcare benefits coverage for hormone replacement therapies and puberty blockers for minors. The coverage also includes “full transgender surgeries.” 

All facilities received a 95 out of 100, except for the Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael, California. Most of the facilities lost five points for the Responsible Citizenship Criteria, which can lead to a point deduction for “activities that undermine LGBTQ+ equality or patient care.” The Mercy San Juan had 25 points removed based on this criteria. 

The Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco is listed among 13 facilities that received 100 points on HRC’s index. The high score means these places cover hormone replacement therapies, puberty blockers for minors and trans surgeries for employees. 

“In fact, each one of these health facilities specifically received a blue checkmark on their profiles, indicating that they have employee health benefits that cover the aforementioned transgender’ treatments,'” the report notes. 

The healthcare company Dignity Health, which oversees Saint Francis Memorial Hospital, joined Catholic Health Initiatives in 2019 in creating CommonSpirit. Dignity Health’s website references the group’s founding by Catholic nuns as the reason it affirms homosexuality and trans-identifying people.

Another page on Dignity Health’s website alludes to a statement about services at California hospitals, stating that “all of our facilities provide a wide range of knowledgeable transgender care.” 

The Saint Francis Memorial Hospital operates a facility called the Gender Institute that offers what it refers to as “gender-affirming care.” The procedures range from facial reconstructive surgeries to make someone appear more masculine or feminine to genital reconstruction. 

Other surgeries that the hospital offers include vocal cord surgery, breast augmentation, hysterectomies, as well as vaginoplasties and phallus reconstruction. 

“From our entire hospital staff undergoing pronoun training to following the guidelines set by The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, The Saint Francis Memorial Hospital Gender Institute’s best-in-class surgeons and specialists are dedicated to the gender-affirming individual experience,” the hospital boasts on its website. 

In May 2022, the hospital released a YouTube video featuring Dr. Heidi Wittenberg, a gender realignment surgeon and a trans-identified individual who underwent surgery at the hospital. The video promotes gender surgeries as a way for individuals to align with their perception of themselves. 

“It should be noted that CommonSpirit’s tax form 990s for 2020 and 2019 both indicate that
CommonSpirit Health provided funds totaling $2,128,662 to the Saint Francis Memorial Hospital over the course of those two years,” the report explains. “What this means is that Catholic funds are going directly to the very hospital performing these ghastly procedures.
Bear in mind that all of this is being done through CommonSpirit’s 2019 merge partner, Dignity Health. What’s worse is that Dignity health is doing this in the name of the Catholic Church.”

The Lepanto Institute is calling on bishops to lead the public in acts of “penance” for the “evil” CommonSpirit is committing in the Church’s name. In addition, the organization wants bishops to require their Catholic hospitals to either disaffiliate from CommonSpirit or lose their Catholic identities.

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