US bishops officially ban gender-affirming care at Catholic hospitals
[November 13, 2025]
By TIFFANY STANLEY
U.S. Catholic bishops voted Wednesday to make official a ban on
gender-affirming care for transgender patients at Catholic hospitals.
The step formalizes a yearslong process for the U.S. church to address
transgender health care.
From a Baltimore hotel ballroom, the bishops overwhelmingly approved
revisions to their ethical and religious directives that guide the
nation’s thousands of Catholic health care institutions and providers.
More than one in seven patients in the U.S. are treated each day at
Catholic hospitals, according to the Catholic Health Association.
Catholic hospitals are the only medical center in some communities.
Major medical groups and health organizations support gender-affirming
care for transgender patients.
Most Catholic health care institutions have taken a conservative
approach and not offered gender-affirming care, which may involve
hormonal, psychological and surgical treatments. The new directives will
formalize that mandate. Bishops will have autonomy in making the
directives into law for their dioceses.
“With regard to the gender ideology, I think it’s very important the
church makes a strong statement here,” said Bishop Robert Barron of
Minnesota’s Winona-Rochester diocese during the public discussion of the
revised directives.
The Catholic Health Association thanked the bishops for incorporating
much of the organization’s feedback into the directives. It said in a
statement, “Catholic providers will continue to welcome those who seek
medical care from us and identify as transgender. We will continue to
treat these individuals with dignity and respect, which is consistent
with Catholic social teaching and our moral obligation to serve
everyone, particularly those who are marginalized.”
The new guidelines incorporate earlier documents on gender identity from
the Vatican in 2024 and the U.S. bishops in 2023.
In the 2023 doctrinal note, titled “Moral Limits to the Technological
Manipulation of the Human Body,” the bishops specified: “Catholic health
care services must not perform interventions, whether surgical or
chemical, that aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human
body into those of the opposite sex, or take part in the development of
such procedures.”
Progressive religious voices respond
The Catholic Church is not monolithic when it comes to transgender
rights. Some parishes and priests welcome trans Catholics into the fold,
while others are not as accepting.
“Catholic teaching upholds the invaluable dignity of every human life,
and for many trans people, gender-affirming care is what makes life
livable,” said Michael Sennett, a trans man who is active in his
Massachusetts parish.
Sennett serves on the board of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for
LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Catholic Church. In 2024, the group arranged a
meeting with Pope Francis to discuss the need for gender-affirming care.
New Ways Ministry’s executive director, Francis DeBernardo, said that
for many transgender Catholics he knows, "the transition process was not
just a biological necessity, but a spiritual imperative. That if they
were going to be living as authentic people in the way that they believe
God made them, then transition becomes a necessary thing.”
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From left; Rev. Michael J.K. Fuller, Archbishop Timothy Broglio and
Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore conduct the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops plenary assembly in Baltimore,
Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
 On the same day that U.S. Catholic
bishops were discussing gender identity, the heads of several major
progressive religious denominations issued a statement in support of
transgender, intersex and nonbinary people, at a time when many
state legislatures and the Trump administration are curtailing their
rights.
The 10 signers included the heads of the Unitarian Universalist
Association, the Episcopal Church, the Union for Reform Judaism and
the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
“During a time when our country is placing their
lives under increasingly serious threat, there is a disgraceful
misconception that all people of faith do not affirm the full
spectrum of gender – a great many of us do. Let it be known instead
that our beloveds are created in the image of God – Holy and whole,”
the religious leaders said in a statement.
U.S. bishops united in their concern for immigrants
The Catholic bishops, wrapping up their conference in Baltimore,
overwhelmingly approved a “special message” on immigration
Wednesday. Such pastoral statements are rare; the last was in 2013
in response to the Obama administration’s mandate for insurers to
provide contraception coverage.
Catholic leaders individually have criticized the Trump
administration’s immigration crackdown. Fear of immigration
enforcement has suppressed Mass attendance at some parishes. Local
clerics are fighting to administer sacraments to detained
immigrants.
“We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and
anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement,”
the bishops’ statement reads. “We are saddened by the state of
contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are
concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of
access to pastoral care.”
In a show of unity, multiple bishops stood up to speak in favor of
the statement during the final afternoon discussion, including
Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley, the newly elected president
of the conference.
“I’m strongly in support of it for the good of our immigrant
brothers and sisters, but also to find a nice balance,” Coakley
said, noting that they call “upon our lawmakers and our
administration to offer us a meaningful path of reform of our
immigration system.”
Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich walked to the microphone to recommend
stronger language around mass deportation. “That seems to be the
central issue we are facing with our people at this time,” he said.
His brother bishops agreed. The updated text now states that U.S.
Catholic bishops “oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of
people.”
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