Tennessee hospital says it temporarily paused transgender procedures

A Tennessee hospital stated it briefly paused “gender affirming procedures” after a number of suppliers questioned the availability of such providers.

Memphis-based Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare stated it’s now working to reschedule sufferers whose process appointments have been canceled earlier than the tip 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.

PFIZER-BIONTECH ASKS FDA TO AUTHORIZE OMICRON BOOSTER FOR CHILDREN UNDER 5

“In current 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 short lived pause to evaluation present practices,” Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare stated in a press release to the Washington Examiner on Monday. “We have now not modified our practices concerning the remedy of transgender and/or non-binary sufferers. We have now not wavered from our dedication as a well being system for all. We perceive the physicians are transferring ahead with getting the sufferers rescheduled earlier than the tip 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 stated 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,” stated Lucas Cameron-Vaughn, an legal professional for the ACLU of Tennessee, in a press release final Wednesday.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Transgender-related remedies, together with gender transition surgical procedures and puberty blockers, have come beneath scrutiny in a number of states, together with Tennessee. The Vanderbilt College Medical Heart in Nashville stated in October that it might be pausing gender transition surgical procedures for minors to evaluation its procedures after movies surfaced of a physician claiming that the surgical procedures are “large cash makers,” in keeping with 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.