A federal judge has ruled that a Catholic hospital in the US state of Maryland ‘discriminated’ against a transgender patient by refusing a request for a hysterectomy as part of a gender transition. Catholic bioethics rule out removing healthy organs or body parts for non-medical reasons.
Officials at St. Joseph Medical Center, which is owned by the University of Maryland, refused to proceed with a hysterectomy scheduled for patient Jesse Hammons, 33, a transgender man.
Hammons, who is biologically female, brought the suit after the hospital said they could not perform the surgery due to guidelines set by the National Catholic Bioethics Center.
U.S. District Court Judge Deborah Chasanow the hospital’s refusal to provide the patient with the ‘gender-affirming’ surgery was ‘discriminatory.’ The procedure is widely available in non-Catholic hospitals in the US.
