Christian News
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — A California woman who identifies as a man has filed a lawsuit against a Catholic hospital and its parent company for prohibiting her surgeon from performing a sex change-related hysterectomy at the facility because of the organization’s religious convictions.
The 35-year-old woman, who goes by the name Evan Minton, had been scheduled to undergo a complete hysterectomy at Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael last August. She believed the procedure was necessary to comport with her preferred identity.
However, the day before her appointment, after she noted to a nurse that she identifies as “transgender,” the surgery was canceled.
“In general, it is our practice not to provide sterilization services at Dignity Health’s Catholic facilities,” said spokeswoman Melissa Jue in a statement at the time. . . [Full text]
A Catholic religious order, the Sisters of Mercy, founded 10 hospitals that were combined as Catholic Healthcare West in 1986. Catholic Healthcare West became Dignity Health in 2012, so it would appear to be an identifiably Catholic healthcare organization. It operates 400 care sites in 22 states, including 39 hospitals. 24 of these are Catholic and 15 are non-Catholic [see Dignity Health]. What is remarkable about this incident is that a Catholic corporate entity (Dignity Health) stated that it was “happy to provide Mr. Minton and his surgeon the use of another Dignity Health hospital for his surgery.” This suggests that the surgery was actively facilitated by Dignity Health. If so, it would seem that Dignity Health believed that active facilitation of the surgery did not involve moral complicity, or that a Catholic corporate entity may support procedures that are prohibited by the Catholic Church. Either position would have serious adverse implications for freedom of conscience and religion, and might make it extremely difficult for Dignity Health to defend the refusal to permit the surgery in a Catholic hospital.