SPOKANE — Diocese of Spokane Bishop Thomas Daly reportedly said he plans to confront Catholic hospitals and clinics that offer gender-affirming care to children.
Daly, who was named the seventh Bishop of Spokane in 2015, currently chairs the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee of Catholic Education. In an interview, Daly reportedly told the National Catholic Register that he hopes the USCCB will set a date to discuss a recent report that found more than 100 Catholic hospitals across the country offer gender-affirming care.
“As bishops, I think we need to confront Catholic health care, because they are violating their mission,” Daly is quoted as saying by the Catholic news organization.
Gender-affirming care applies to different interventions supporting an individual’s gender when it is different from the sex they were assigned at birth. Many of these interventions are medical, with the most common treatment being hormone replacement therapy. Gender-affirming care also includes puberty blockers and surgeries, as well as psychological counseling.
Daly’s frustration comes in light of a recent report released by Do No Harm, a nonprofit that launched in 2022 to oppose gender-affirming care and other diversity inclusion initiatives in medicine.
According to the report, Nearly 150 Catholic hospitals across the United States provided children with hormone therapy or performed gender-transition surgeries on them between 2019 and 2023.
“I’m appalled, but sadly I’m not surprised,” Daly reportedly said in a statement sent to the Register last week.
In Spokane, MultiCare, Planned Parenthood, CHAS Health and Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center all provide gender-affirming care to patients.
On Monday afternoon, a Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center spokesperson said in a statement that the report lacked “critical context” and expressed concern with its intentions:
“Providence was not asked to provide information to Do No Harm, so cannot speak to the validity of its report content, data or methodology,” reads the statement. “However, we do have concerns about the motivation for this report and the risk it poses to the privacy of a vulnerable patient population. The Providence family of organizations is committed to caring for all people as a healing ministry. We provide quality, compassionate health care to everyone who comes to us.
“Consistent with our mission and values, Catholic teaching and state and federal laws, we treat LGBTQ+ people with respect and sensitivity and provide all patients with the full range of care available at our facilities,” the Providence statement continued. “Our hospitals provide an array of health care services to people of all ages, including clinically indicated and age-appropriate treatments and procedures, consistent with the state and federal law and in keeping with the Ethical Religious Directives. However, the information in this report lacks critical clinical context and misrepresents the care these vulnerable patients receive.”
In a statement sent to The Spokesman, Daly expressed concern about any Catholic hospitals that offer gender-affirming health care, calling such treatments an “abandonment of what is sacred.”
“The report that almost 150 Catholic hospitals throughout the United States have provided patients — including minors — with drugs and/or surgeries in an attempt to change their gender identity is beyond troubling,” Daly wrote. “Catholic health care has a proven legacy of compassionate, quality care for the sick. Yet, in order to provide this quality of ministry, they must be rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the mission and teaching of the Catholic Church.”
He said Catholic hospitals are expected to follow the “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. In 2023, the USCCB Committee on Doctrine made clear that Catholic hospitals must not perform these procedures. Pope Francis has also spoken against it, Daly said.
Bishops admit the complexity in navigating contemporary issues, but with this matter — as with abortion — the church’s teaching is clear. Sadly this report reveals another example of what has happened all too often at some Catholic colleges, social service agencies, and medical facilities: a compromise with the secular and an abandonment of what is sacred,” Daly wrote.
Daly reportedly told the National Catholic Register that he doesn’t expect gender-affirming care to come up in a formal discussion next month at the annual U.S. Bishops fall assembly in Baltimore. But the Spokane bishop reportedly said he hopes the bishops will “set a date” to discuss it.
