 |
| Evan Minton / LGBTQ Nation |
The Supreme Court declined to wade into a case involving transgender rights and leaving in place a lower court decision against a Catholic hospital that wouldn’t allow a transgender man to have a hysterectomy there AP Reports.
Evan Minton’s doctor had scheduled the hysterectomy to be performed at Mercy San Juan Medical Center on August 30, 2016, as part of Minton’s gender transition
GCN Repoers. Mercy San Juan is one of many hospitals owned by Dignity Health. When the hospital learned that the procedure was for purposes of gender transition, it canceled the procedure, informing the doctor that she would “never” be allowed to perform a hysterectomy on Minton at Mercy because “it was scheduled as part of a course of treatment for gender dysphoria, as opposed to any other medical diagnosis,” and this violated Catholic principles.
The high court turned away the case Monday without comment, as is typical. Three conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch — said they would have heard the case.
Mercy San Juan Medical Center near Sacramento declined to allow the procedure to be performed at its facility saying it was an “elective sterilization” that violated the hospital’s ethical and religious obligations.
Minton, got the surgery three days later at a different hospital. He sued under a California law that bars discrimination. A trial court agreed with the hospital that a three-day delay in the procedure did not involve a denial of “full and equal” access to health care under California law. An appeals court reversed that decision.
