Tennessee hospital says it briefly paused transgender procedures

A Tennessee hospital mentioned it briefly paused "gender affirming procedures" after a number of suppliers questioned the supply of such companies.

Memphis-based Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare mentioned it's now working to reschedule sufferers whose process appointments have been canceled earlier than the top of the 12 months, days after the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee threatened to file a grievance with the Division of Well being and Human Providers Workplace for Civil Rights.

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"In latest weeks, some care suppliers voiced questions on sufferers receiving gender affirming procedures at a facility affiliated with our well being system. This resulted in a brief pause to overview present practices," Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare mentioned in a press release to the Washington Examiner on Monday. "We now have not modified our practices relating to the remedy of transgender and/or non-binary sufferers. We now have not wavered from our dedication as a well being system for all. We perceive the physicians are shifting ahead with getting the sufferers rescheduled earlier than the top of the 12 months."

The hospital didn't specify what number of sufferers or what sort of procedures have been affected by the pause.

Final week, the ACLU mentioned consumer Chris Evans, 19, had a surgical procedure scheduled on the hospital for November that was canceled days earlier than.

The nonprofit group threatened to file a federal grievance if Evans's surgical procedure was not rescheduled by Dec. 31, claiming that the hospital's cancellation of surgical procedures for transgender and nonbinary sufferers was discriminatory on the premise of intercourse and talent.

"Denial of healthcare ends in life-threatening conditions for all sufferers. Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare is risking the lives of its sufferers by leaping into tradition wars. Discrimination doesn't belong in healthcare,” mentioned Lucas Cameron-Vaughn, an lawyer for the ACLU of Tennessee, in a press release final Wednesday.

Transgender-related remedies, together with gender transition surgical procedures and puberty blockers, have come below scrutiny in a number of states, together with Tennessee. The Vanderbilt College Medical Middle in Nashville mentioned in October that it will be pausing gender transition surgical procedures for minors to overview its procedures after movies surfaced of a physician claiming that the surgical procedures are "big cash makers," in accordance to the Related Press.

GOP leaders in Tennessee's statehouse have vowed to take legislative motion to ban transgender-related remedies for minors within the new 12 months.