US bishops vote to ban transgender surgeries at Catholic hospitals

U.S. bishops voted Wednesday to ban gender reassignment surgeries at Catholic hospitals in their latest update to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.

The seventh edition of the ERD states that “we have a duty to ‘protect our humanity,’” which includes “accepting it and respecting it as it was created.” The document states this means Catholic healthcare services cannot provide medical interventions intended to “alter the fundamental order of the human body in its form or function,” be it surgical, hormonal, or genetic.