Today, one in every of every seven Americans in need of hospital care will receive it in a Catholic facility—a complete of nearly 115 million visits to Catholic hospitals every year. They achieve this knowing they’ll receive excellent medical care and be treated with dignity, respect and welcome.
As Pope Francis has said, “Every health care facility, especially those of Christian inspiration, needs to be a spot where take care of the person is practiced and where it will probably be said: ‘Here you don’t see only doctors and patients, but individuals who welcome and help one another; here you may experience the therapy of human dignity.’”
That’s true for all individuals who come to us, regardless of their age, sex, racial or ethnic background, or religion. It’s also true for individuals who discover as transgender. They are going to receive the identical treatment as every other patient. Catholic hospitals don’t discriminate against anyone and to achieve this could be offensive to the embracing and expansive healing ministry of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, if health care facilities are to be places where the dual pillars of religion and science stand together, then these facilities and their employees must not be coerced by the federal government to violate their consciences.
They are going to receive the identical treatment as every other patient. Catholic hospitals don’t discriminate against anyone.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has proposed latest rules implementing Section 1557, the nondiscrimination provision of the Reasonably priced Care Act. It rightly prohibits discrimination on the idea of sex in health care. We wholeheartedly support all efforts to make sure that everyone, without exception, receives one of the best health care that’s their due.
Nevertheless, under this latest proposed rule, it could be considered discrimination for a health care facility or employee to object to performing gender transition procedures, no matter whether that objection is a matter of sincerely held religious belief or clinical judgment. That is government coercion that intrudes on the religious freedom of faith-based health care facilities. Such a mandate threatens the conscience rights of all health care providers and employees who’ve discerned that participating in, or facilitating, gender transition procedures is contrary to their very own beliefs.
People of many religions, or of no faith yet with deep personal convictions, may find these procedures profoundly troubling, and their constitutional rights need to be respected. In a society that protects the free exercise of faith, religious health care providers can’t be expected to violate the teachings of their religion as a condition of continuous their care, and spiritual health care employees can’t be expected to violate their consciences as a condition of employment.
Does objecting to performing gender transition procedures—but welcoming patients who discover as transgender—constitute discrimination? In fact not.
Does objecting to performing gender transition procedures—but welcoming patients who discover as transgender—constitute discrimination? In fact not. The main target of such an objection is totally on the procedure, not the patient. Prohibiting the removal of a healthy, functioning organ just isn’t discrimination, provided that the identical determination could be made for anyone of any sex or gender, which is true at Catholic hospitals.
The proposed regulation doesn’t codify the rights of faith-based providers to say no procedures based on conscience, as other federal laws do. Somewhat, it holds that H.H.S. reserves the correct to determine whether, despite those existing conscience protections, it will probably force faith-based providers to violate their beliefs. Considering that the federal government is currently fighting court rulings that held that it violated religious freedom laws the last time it tried to impose a mandate like this, it is cheap to lack confidence within the department’s commitment to construing these laws to supply appropriately robust conscience protections.
We support H.H.S.’s efforts to make sure all people receive high-quality health care. The church has supported universal health care as a basic human right for greater than a century. Now we have long proposed moral principles for discerning health care policy: It should respect the life and dignity of one and all, be accessible to all, honor conscience rights, be truly inexpensive, and be comprehensive and of top quality.
By the identical token, Catholic hospitals and health care employees shouldn’t be punished due to their religious convictions or clinical judgments. We urge H.H.S. to reconsider its misguided mandate.
The promise of the Catholic hospital reflects the promise of the Catholic faith. It’s a place for healing. It’s an establishment that has grown out of Christian fidelity to Jesus Christ, who healed the sick and cared for the poor. We’re motivated by our faith within the God who makes all things latest.
In Christ, God became flesh, suffered, died and rose from the dead. Jesus shows us what it’s to be human and how one can truly take care of others. This vision of sacrificial love and repair is our only mandate.
