Minton could've easily gone to another hospital, but insisted on a hysterectomy at Catholic Mercy San Juan. Why? Isn't it obvious
When Catholic Mt. St. Charles Academy said early this year, that it would not accept nor enroll Transgender Students, the left declared war. The Rhode Island School placed itself in the center of a national debate over an LGBT nondiscrimination ordinance that would protect transgender people's access to public accommodations.
On March 9, 2016, having received a petition with 1700 signatures from Change.org, and more importantly, having pissed off at least one major alum who donated money, MSC Academy folded. They apologized for hurting anyone's feelings, and admitted Transgender students despite their previous statements that they did not have the physical facilities to accommodate them.
The Daily Beast's article on the subject was even titled "hateful rhetoric." http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/04/catholic-prep-school-no-transgender-students.html Needless to say, the Daily Beast never addressed the obvious question of why a transgender person would want to attend a religious conservative catholic school.
Today's headline is "Transgender Man Denied Hysterectomy at Mercy San Juan Hospital." The hospital, which is Catholic, refuses to allow a surgeon with operating privileges at Mercy, to carry out a scheduled hysterectomy on this determined, though confused, person. From the Sacramento Bee:
Tuesday was supposed to be a big day for Evan Michael Minton. The Fair Oaks resident packed his bags for the hospital, said a prayer and counted down the hours until he would undergo the hysterectomy that would take him one step further in his transition from female to male.
Instead he spent the day on the phone with doctors and lawyers after Mercy San Juan hospital in Carmichael abruptly canceled the procedure on religious grounds.
The surgery, part of Minton's transition to a fully male body, had been scheduled for three weeks but was called off Monday as hospital officials were preparing his admissions paperwork.
Both Minton and his surgeon, Dr. Lindsey Dawson, said they were caught unawares by the hospital's decision.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article98943597.html#storylink=cpy
In a statement, Dignity Health, which until 2012 was affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, declined to discuss Minton's case, citing patient privacy laws.
"In general, it is our practice not to provide sterilization services at Dignity Health's Catholic facilities," said spokeswoman Melissa Jue, in an emailed statement. Sterilization procedures, such as hysterectomies or tubal ligations, she said, are permitted by Catholic hospitals only to cure or alleviate a "serious pathology and (if) a simpler treatment is not available."
In Minton's case, there is a clear, medical need for a hysterectomy, according to his surgeon."Gender dysphoria is very clearly a pathology," said Dawson. "It's a recognized state of health," noting that national obstetrics groups recommend that transitioning transgender patients be put on hormones and provided with appropriate surgeries.
She said Minton is her first patient seeking a hysterectomy as a part of gender transition care. So in other words, she wants to open up Mercy San Juan to future transgender surgeries. In her religion, the right to transition between genders, anywhere any time, should be a right, not a privelege.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article98943597.html#storylink=cpy
Personally, I doubt that they were "caught unawares" by the hospitals decision. Minton and Dr. Dawson knew full well that once the Catholic hospital figured out what was going down in their surgical theater, they would call a halt to it. Dr. Dawson in particular knew Mercy's ban on voluntary sterilizations.
To make sure they knew, Minton checked into the hospital insisting he be referred to as "he. Pronouns are very important to me. I told them to call me he or him, not she or her, which they started to call me after referring to my chart."
Yessir, Mr. Minton. When they saw you wanted a hysterectomy, the cat was out of the bag, and they knew you were born a girl.
Well, congrats on your 15 minutes of fame. And for standing up to say that anyone should be able to get a hysterectomy any time on demand, in any place. Because, you know, that's an important right. Despite the religious convictions of the folks who funded the hospital. Despite the fact that you could just go down the street to any other hospital in Sacramento.
Reader Comments(2)
blah writes:
The article author starts out by intentionally misgending a transman. Why ? Isn't it obvious ? Seems like there is some antitrans bias here. The article clearly says that all was good until they found out he was trans but that's not good enough for evil Catholics is it ?
09/01/2016, 8:42 am
Tina writes:
It is clearly in the interests of the medical establishment to proclaim transgender issues as legitimate medical concerns. This is the vehicle by which the doctors can get paid by insurance companies for the various treatments and surgeries involved - which I imagine can add up to a lot of money. In the same vein, doctors have declared short stature to be a pathology and have created a cottage industry of treating adolescent boys with growth hormone. It's a way to get paid and it's politically correct. But it is not necessarily a truth that most people requesting surgery to change their gender actually need this treatment.
08/31/2016, 11:04 am