Gender Analysis

Declaration of Mario Dickerson, executive director of the Catholic Medical Association, 4 November 2021, in American College of Pediatricians et al. v. Becerra et al.

The Catholic Medical Association (CMA) is a right-wing advocacy group claiming a membership of about 2,500 Catholic doctors and other healthcare professionals in the United States (Declaration of Mario Dickerson, 4 November 2021). Previously, CMA described being gay as “preventable and treatable” (“Homosexuality & Hope”, 2009), opposed bans of anti-gay conversion therapy, opposed legal marriage equality, claimed abortion is “not healthcare”, denied abortion could ever be medically necessary, promoted “abortion pill reversal”, argued for Catholic religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccine mandates, and opposed medical transition treatments.

Since April 2022, Florida healthcare agencies have made ongoing efforts against transition care, with the involvement of “experts” from anti-trans groups like the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM), Genspect, and the American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) hate group. However, the CMA and its related groups are an even more extensive source of influence in the Florida anti-trans process and in wider political, legal, and religious action against gender-affirming care in the US healthcare system:

• In April 2022, the Florida Department of Health’s “Treatment of Gender Dysphoria” guidelines cited a “systematic review” by CMA member Paul W. Hruz in the CMA’s journal The Linacre Quarterly; his article was not a systematic review. Three of the five expert reports against transition treatment provided to Florida AHCA/Medicaid were by CMA members: Attachment E by Quentin L. Van Meter (also the president of ACPeds), Attachment F by Deacon Patrick W. Lappert, and Attachment G by G. Kevin Donovan. Additionally, CMA member Patrick Hunter was appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis to the Florida Board of Medicine in June 2022 as AHCA advanced its exclusion of transition care from Medicaid.
• In August 2021, CMA and ACPeds filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Health and Human Services (American College of Pediatricians et al. v. Becerra et al., 2021) in which their respective leaders, executive director Mario Dickerson and president Quentin L. Van Meter, used identical language claiming their members would not endorse any standards of care supporting transition. Dickerson of the CMA filed his declaration on November 4, citing various Catholic doctrinal statements from the Vatican and the Diocese of Arlington, while Van Meter of ACPeds filed his declaration five days later and omitted any reference to Catholic beliefs. Michelle Cretella, former president of ACPeds, is also a member of CMA, and ACPeds may serve largely as a secular front for CMA.
• Because this is an absolute faith-based commitment by CMA and its members, Florida AHCA/Medicaid’s choice of CMA members to contribute three of five expert reports was a guarantee that a majority would not approve of our transition care in any way. These CMA members made no efforts to recuse themselves from this process or to disclose their prior commitment that they would ultimately always find against transition treatment regardless of the process. This effort led to the advancement of a rulemaking process against transition care by the Florida Board of Medicine by a 14-1 vote on August 5, and Medicaid’s exclusion of coverage for transition care starting on August 21.
• CMA and its “allied organization” the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) operate a credentialing pipeline with the University of Mary’s “master’s in bioethics” program, inviting professionals from any field (“including professionals and specialists from centers for biomedical and biological research, universities, and government institutions involved in shaping public policy”) to attend brief seminars and complete online modules to receive a “certification in healthcare ethics” for $3,450. This can be converted to an MS in bioethics following additional courses at University of Mary. Patrick Hunter of the Florida Board of Medicine has no experience working with trans youth or adults, and received an MS in bioethics from the University of Mary in 2020. He now testifies that he holds an “advanced degree in bioethics” (Declaration of Patrick Hunter, 1 May 2022, in Eknes-Tucker v. Ivey), while other recipients of this degree clarify it is a “master’s degree in Catholic bioethics from the University of Mary in North Dakota, in association with the National Catholic Bioethics Center” (Jane Doe 1 in Doe et al. v. Board of Regents of the University of Colorado et al.).
• The importance of developing a stable of anti-trans experts with the credentials to testify as expert witnesses was discussed by CMA members Hruz, Van Meter, and Lappert at a 2017 meeting hosted by the anti-LGBT Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) (Deposition of Paul W. Hruz, 29 September 2021, and deposition of Patrick Lappert, 30 September 2021, in Kadel v. Folwell). Lappert, too, has no experience diagnosing or treating gender dysphoria and did not begin offering anti-trans expert testimony until after this meeting.
• The NCBC has developed extensive theological arguments for why social and medical transition are “always morally evil” and “never morally permissible”, and facilitating anyone’s transition is “cooperation with evil” (Furton et al., 2021). Even if transitioning were found to be unambiguously beneficial to trans people, NCBC contends it is still always unacceptable because it is contrary to their interpretation of Catholic teaching; the NCBC has argued against Catholic healthcare organizations that do find transitioning to be morally permissible under Catholic belief (Harrison, pp. 56-57, 68-69 in Furton et al. 2021). Their staff work with Catholic Church dioceses to enforce anti-trans policies in Catholic hospitals and facilities via “Catholic identity” contracts and agreements, including regular audits conducted by an NCBC “survey team” as part of an “ethics review” (Deposition of Gail P. Cunningham, 14 April 2022, and deposition of Father Louis Asobi, 11 April 2022, in Hammons v. University of Maryland Medical System et al.). The NCBC issues reports about Catholic healthcare facilities to local bishops and other Catholic leaders, and Catholic hospitals appear to use spreadsheets to track “gender transition diagnoses” for auditing.
• NCBC policy for hospitals mandates misgendering and deadnaming even trans patients who have had a legal name change, as well as routinely discontinuing HRT for trans patients admitted to any Catholic facility to avoid cooperating with “evil” (NCBC, “Transgender Issues in Catholic Health Care”, February 2017). Because 1 in 6 US hospital beds are in Catholic hospitals, this is an ongoing threat to the health of any trans person who may have a medical emergency near such a facility.

Catholic Church doctrine on trans people and transitioning, explained and enforced by the Catholic Medical Association and the National Catholic Bioethics Center, provides a clear roadmap for banning all forms of gender affirmation at all ages in any state that allows these groups to take control of trans healthcare. This is an unchanging position based on a religious belief and a faith commitment, and all members of the CMA and NCBC can be presumed to hold an absolute opposition to gender-affirming care regardless of evidence. Continue reading →