CommonSpirit Health, America’s largest Catholic nonprofit health system, reportedly performs sex change operations, as detailed in a new 64-page report published by the Lepanto Institute, a Catholic organization. The report accuses CommonSpirit Health of going against Catholic moral teachings, focusing on the network’s promotion of transgenderism. Formed from the 2019 merger of Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives, CommonSpirit oversees over 1,000 care sites and 140 hospitals across 21 states.
The report cites St. Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco, part of the CommonSpirit network, which houses a facility called “The Gender Institute.” This Institute provides “gender affirming care”, with its associated email account ending in “@commonspirit.org.” The hospital’s website underlines its alignment with the CommonSpirit mission and values. It also advertises that its entire staff underwent pronoun training to support the “gender-affirming individual experience.”
St. Francis Memorial Hospital offers various surgeries including “hysterectomy,” “vaginoplasty,” “phalloplasty,” and “scrotoplasty.” The hospital received international recognition as the first Center of Excellence in Gender Confirmation Surgery by the Surgical Review Corporation, based on the volume of surgeries performed. Furthermore, the hospital was awarded a perfect score by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a leftist organization known for its LGBT acceptance grading system for hospitals.
Virginia Mason Franciscan Health (VMFH), another institution under the CommonSpirit umbrella, provides puberty blockers to minors, according to the report. The health network lists “puberty blockers” and “gender-affirming hormone therapy” among its pediatric primary care services. VMFH also conducts irreversible sex change procedures such as double mastectomies. At least 13 hospitals under CommonSpirit, including VMFH, received perfect scores from the HRC.
CommonSpirit Health, sponsored by the Catholic Health Care Federation, is legally defined as a “public juridic person within the meaning of the code of Canon law for the Roman Catholic Church.” This designation denotes that CHCF is an official part of the Church, with duties assigned to it by the Church, enabling it to act publicly in the name of the Church. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, however, has openly opposed medical interventions aimed at changing a person’s sex, stating that Catholic health care services should not be involved in such procedures.