U.S. BISHOPS’ GUIDELINES LIMIT GENDER-AFFIRMING HEALTH CARE

United States Catholic bishops have issued guidelines that seek to stop Catholic hospitals from providing gender transition care, a move LGBTQ advocates say could harm the physical and emotional health of transgender people within the church.

The 14-page doctrinal note, titled “Moral Limits to the Technological Manipulation of the Human Body,” sets forth guidelines for changing a person’s sex, specifically with youth. The document, issued Monday, says Catholic hospitals “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.”

Transgender Catholics have received a mixed response across the U.S. church. Some have found acceptance in specific parishes and rejection in certain dioceses, including those that bar church personnel from using trans people’s preferred gender pronouns. The bishops’ latest guidance to Catholic medical centers could prevent trans people from getting the health care they need, said Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for greater LGBTQ acceptance in the church.

The bishops’ guidelines “will not change much” when it comes to caring for transgender patients at Catholic hospitals, said the Rev. Charlie Bouchard, CHA’s senior director of theology and sponsorship. Transgender people will continue to always be accepted in Catholic hospitals and treated with dignity and respect, but might not receive all of the gender-affirming care they request because of the church’s theological and moral teachings, he said.